Together with experienced co-driver Jonas Andersson from Arvika, Solberg will drive his first international rally in almost five years. He will start in the same Volkswagen Polo R5 that his son Oliver Solberg won the competition with last year.

“It was calling me… every time I was in the workshop, the car was telling me to use it! You can’t ignore that,” says Petter Solberg.

“You know me, you know this family – rallying is everything to us. Last year I took my mother for a ride in my Citroën C4 WRC on one stage of Royal Rally. That was nice, but Oliver was having all the fun and winning the rally”

Petter has been known as “Mr. Hollywood” throughout his career, and he promises a show in the forests of Värmland when he gets back behind the wheel.

“This is to enjoy. The priority is to drive the car – the first ever Polo R5 made, chassis number one – to make the smiles and to give something to the rally fans coming from Norway and for those people watching the ERC from around the world. I don’t go there trying to win, it’s for the show and to enjoy the driving. We know there are a lot of very fast drivers in ERC – it’s one hell of a competition.”

With his base in Torsby, the rally was too close for Petter to resist the temptation to come back.

“I want to have some of that fun. The rally is really close for us, we have a lot of friends and family close by and, of course, we have Monster Energy, Pirelli and Castrol coming with us. We take the [Volkswagen] Polo and we do this together,” says Petter, concluding:

“I’m so excited. Tell them, the comeback is on!”

BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia is looking forward to welcoming back one of the rally world’s biggest stars.

“Having Petter make a comeback in the top class is a dream for us. This fires up the interest, and I hope all rally fans from both Sweden, Norway, and the rest of the world now seize the opportunity and come here – you don’t want to miss this summer’s rally festival,” says Glenn Olsson, CEO of BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia.