Oliver Solberg to make US rally debut with Subaru

Oliver Solberg will compete in the American Rally Association championship for Subaru Motorsports this season.

As first reported by DominikWilde.com last month, the son of 2003 World Rally champion Petter Solberg has had a car number reserved for the 2019 season since January 12. In driving for Subaru, the 17-year-old will drive the latest version of Vermont Sports Car’s open class WRX STI, sporting a similar livery to the car that his father drove during his championship-winning world championship season.

Solberg will dovetail his US campaign – which will consist of six of the eight remaining rounds of the championship – alongside continued appearances in Latvia, where he will be driving a new Volkswagen Polo R5. He has already won the two rallies he has competed on this year – Rally Aluksne and Rally Sarma in the Latvian rally championship.

“From my very early childhood memories I can remember me and my father rolling around in blue subaru suits and driving the Subaru car,” Solberg said. “Him also winning the championship and a lot of races with the blue Subaru, it’s always been a big inspiration for me and there’s always been a good connection between the Solberg family and the Subaru family.”

“I’ve always dreamt about driving a classic blue Subaru as my father did and finally my dream has come true.”

Oliver Solberg won last year’s RallyX Nordic title driving the same Citroen DS3 supercar that his father drove to the 2014 and ’15 World RX titles. He has also been competing in the junior category of the Latvian Rally Championship in a Peugeot 208 R2. He rounded out his 2018 campaign by against his father at Gymkhana Grid in South Africa, driving another one of Solberg Sr’s cars – an upgraded version of his Citroen Xsara WRC car.

Subaru Motorsports, formerly known as Subaru Rally Team USA, will enter a full-time car for seven-time US rally champion David Higgins in this year’s ARA season. Travis Pastrana, Patrik Sandell, and Chris Atkinson are also expected to feature for the team throughout the year.