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Petter Solberg
Petter Solberg during the 2006 Rally Australia.
World Rally Championship record
Nationality	Norwegian
Active years	1998 - present
Teams	Subaru
World rallies	108
Championships	1 (2003)
Wins	13
Podium finishes	32
Stage wins	294
Points	321
First world rally	1998 Swedish Rally
First win	2002 Rally Great Britain
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Petter "Hollywood" Solberg (born November 18, 1974 in Askim), from Spydeberg i Østfold, Norway, is a professional rally driver.

He is married to a Swede, Pernilla Walfridsson, with whom he has a son, Oliver. Pernilla is the daughter of former Volvo factory driver and 1980 European Rallycross Champion, Per-Inge "Pi" Walfridsson (who also claimed a remarkable 4th overall in the 1973 RAC Rally). She was also, for some time, rated as possibly the world's fastest female rally driver.

Solberg won a nationwide RC car championship at the age of 13 as he inherited his interest of motorsport through his parents, mother Tove and father Terje, who were keen bilcross competitors and rallycross fans. He used to help out around the home farm rebuilding competition cars, as he was not yet old enough to drive. Solberg entered his first bilcross (an "inexpensive version" of Norwegian rallycross) in 1992, three days after his 18th birthday and only a day after he got his driving license. He went on to become Norwegian champion in rallycross as well as hillclimb in both 1995 (winning 19 out of 21 events) and 1996 (winning 15 out of 19 events). In 1998, he became the Norwegian Rally Champion (older brother Henning won this title five times in a row between 1999 and 2003). By this time, the World Rally Championship team bosses were starting to recognize Solberg's potential and by the end of 1998 he agreed to drive for three years with the Ford Rally Team. In 2000, however, he left Ford's M-Sport outfit somewhat early and signed with the Prodrive Subaru World Rally Team (SWRT). His first podium had to wait until the Acropolis Rally, Greece the following year, as an altruistic Solberg forsook as many of his own points as possible, as he did in dropping voluntarily from 4th to 5th in Sanremo, to assist team-mate Richard Burns in sneaking to the title.

In 2002, with four-time champion Tommi Mäkinen installed as his new team-mate in the light of Burns' departure to Peugeot, Solberg won his first ever WRC event in Wales (Wales Rally GB) after a consistent display of driving prowess and an unlikely accident by Marcus Grönholm. In 2003, Solberg beat fellow WRC young-gun Sébastien Loeb at the Wales Rally GB, launching him to his second win in Wales and his first ever World Rally Championship title. In 2004, Solberg won five of 16 events, including the Wales Rally GB, but lost the Championship to Loeb due to an unfortunate string of bad luck that encapsulated three DNFs (retirements) in mid-season. In 2005, Solberg won three rallies, although was severely affected by bad luck while challenging for wins at the end of the season, most notably in Telstra Rally Australia, where he was forced to retire after striking a wayward kangaroo.

For 2006, Solberg continued his partnership with the Subaru team, driving a new version of the Impreza WRC. His main sponsor was 24SevenOffice with a $5 million kroner sponshorship deal, record-breaking by Norwegian standards. His results, though, proved nothing if not patchy in comparison to the man who usurped him from top spot in the series in 2004. While Loeb went on to register five rally victories on the bounce in a privately (Kronos) run Citroën Xsara WRC, his winning of the title unhampered even by breaking his arm, Solberg could only comparatively muster a handful of runner-up places on rallies all season - in Mexico Argentina and Australia. Failure to claw his way any higher than sixth in the year's final points standings duly brought an end to the chain of top three drivers' championship appearances which Subaru had enjoyed since 1994.

The Norwegian did, at least, get his 2007 season off to a rather more auspicious start, managing a joint-career-best finish of sixth place on the Rally Monte Carlo.

2002

• Wales Rally Great Britain

2003

• Rally Cyprus
• Rally Australia
• Rallye de France
• Wales Rally Great Britain

2004

• Rally New Zealand
• Acropolis Rally
• Rally Japan
• Wales Rally Great Britain
• Rally d'Italia Sardinia

2005

• Uddeholm Swedish Rally
• Rally Mexico
• Wales Rally Great Britain

2006

• None

• pettersolberg.com
• WRC.com - official World Rally Championship website
• rallybase

• WRC.com
• Crash.net
• rally.racing-live.com