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Motorsport

Petter Solberg’s 17-year-old son is already a boss rally driver

Solberg name + classic Subaru livery = much speed

Published: 30 Apr 2019

Think for a moment of what you’ve inherited from your parents. We'll wait. Now consider that Oliver Solberg clearly got the ‘immense rally driving talent’ gene that runs in his family. Not that we're bitter of course…

Oliver is the son of former WRC champion Petter Solberg and one of the world’s leading female rally drivers Pernilla Walfridsson, and he’s just won his first American Rally Association (ARA) event. He’s still only 17 for goodness sake.

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The Olympus Rally is held across 127 miles of stages in the forests outside of Seattle, much of which used to be home to a US round of the World Rally Championship. Promising stuff from the youngster then, especially considering this was the first time he had even seen the roads. Solberg finished 25.9 seconds ahead of his teammate and defending ARA champion David Higgins.

Like his father did, Oliver competes in a Subaru WRX STI in the classic blue'n'yellow livery. He’s even got the iconic gold wheels from the Subaru Motorsports USA team.

It may only be a single rally win, but we’d love to see another Solberg making it big. Also, his success gave us a pretty good excuse to run the gorgeous pictures you see above. Thanks Oliver.

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