Solberg dropped at least a minor news bomb earlier this week when he revealed that he would be participating in the European Rally Championship event in Sweden.
Solberg will compete in the Swedish ERC rally in mid-June. The event is called the Royal Rally of Scandinavia, and in a way, it’s a home rally for Solberg.
The Swedish ERC rally is very familiar to the Solberg family. Petter’s son, Oliver Solberg, won the same competition last year.
“I will be 50 this year and I think this can be really good fun,” Solberg said on the ERC’s website.
“Oliver is doing everything by himself now, Pernilla [my wife is the FIA WRC Commission president] and I’m alone. So this is more like a motivation thing to see through the rally what my speed can be,” Solberg continued.
Solberg believes that age is just a number. The old champion also hinted intriguingly that there might be more driving to come.
“If you look at Carlos Sainz in Dakar I have quite a few years to drive to be honest and if I want to do something for the future I have to start again and build up,” Solberg said.
Solberg lives close to the rally’s central location. He will participate in the event with his Volkswagen Polo R5 car alongside co-driver Jonas Andersson.
“My Polo was there, nobody is using it and it was asking, ‘Petter, please take me out for a ride,'” Solberg laughed.
Solberg’s challenge in Sweden is significant, as the rally’s special stages are not very familiar to him.
“It’s only one stage I’ve done from the early days, from my time, and that was Colin’s Crest (Vargåsen), all the rest I have never done in my whole life,” Solberg said.
“Two times recce will be my tough part with the pacenotes, to trust them 100 per cent to be honest. I did one stage with my mother last year but that was without pacenotes. It’s like people said last year, ‘Oliver, it’s your home rally, you know this area’, but he had never done a rally here. It was a brand new rally for him last year and it will be a new rally for me also,” Solberg continued.
Solberg believes that success in the home rally won’t be hindered by the equipment.
“The car is good, that’s not a problem. And also when Oliver drove it last year all was not right. Now it’s right for this year. It’s a good chassis. Oliver don’t have the budget so far so it’s a little bit tricky. He’s working on the budget but if he doesn’t have the budget there’s no driving, it’s very simple,” Solberg said.
Solberg considers the level of the ERC to be high.
“There’s a lot of good pace and a lot of good cars. My passion has always been around rallying and it has to be something in rallying if I am going to do something. For sure it’s going to be tough competition. The Qualifying Stage will be crucial. Driving is not a problem I think but it’s the pacenotes, to trust them to go flat out,” Solberg planned.
The 2003 WRC champion has not competed at the top level for a long time. Solberg last competed five years ago in the Wales Rally GB, but since then, the Norwegian has only participated in smaller events.
