Licence test scare for young gun Oliver Solberg

1st October 2019, 12:06pm
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Three Solbergs, and two generations of the famous Norwegian family will cross the start line at Wales Rally GB this Thursday night. Four-time GB winner, Petter, is signing off from his professional driving career at the age of 44. It is his 190th FIA World Rally Championship start, placing him third on the all-time list, of which he won 13. At the other end of the generation scale, his 18-year-old son, Oliver, makes his WRC debut. Both will drive Volkswagen Polo GTI R5s, while Petter’s brother and Oliver’s uncle, Henning, will be in a Skoda Fabia R5. Petter scored his first WRC win in Britain in 2002 and sealed the 2003 world title there with a second win. “It’s going to be quite an emotional event. There’s a lot of history for this family on this rally. It’s the perfect place for us to make this move from my driving to Oliver’s,” he told WRC's Becs Williams. Oliver will start the rally one place ahead of his father.

Oliver Solberg and his (currently) more famous father, Petter. Photo: via WRC.com

“It’s good to be really close on the road,” said Petter. “That means we can talk between stages and I can help Oliver if he needs to think about the set-up. The conditions on this rally can change very quickly.” Oliver starts the recce for the Llandudno-based event on Tuesday just six days after passing his driving test at home in Sweden. The driving element of the test was no problem for the youngest ever winner of a European Rally Championship round, but he did fail the theory test first time around. He retook the written test a day later and passed. Solberg Jr admitted it was a worrying moment. “I got one question wrong,” he said. “Honestly, I was destroyed. My whole world fell apart. In 24 hours I went from being absolutely on the floor thinking my dream was over to being right on the top of the world a day later. “I have done a lot of driving this year and won a few things, but when that pressure came it was massive. But I did it and now I can focus on a rally I’ve been dreaming of competing on for my whole life.”

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