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.
The Olympus Rally is held across 204km 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. The young racer finished 25.9sec ahead of his teammate and defending ARA champion David Higgins.
Like his father did, Solberg competes in a Subaru WRX STI in the classic blue-and-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 has given us a pretty good excuse to run the gorgeous pictures you see here. Thanks, Oliver.
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
