One of world motorsport’s greatest father and son combinations, Petter and Oliver Solberg, will return to defend their ROC Nations Cup title at Sydney’s Race Of Champions at Accor Stadium from March 7-8.
The Solbergs have won the last two ROC Nations Cups for Norway and plan to make the first Race Of Champions event in the Southern Hemisphere the venue for a three-peat.
The Race Of Champions will run over two nights on a purpose-built, AUD$2 million, 1km tarmac track taking centre stage at Accor Stadium.
Night one (March 7) includes the ROC Nations Cup where two-driver teams compete for their nominated country to Crown the ‘World’s Fastest Nation’. The following night (March 8) will see all drivers going head-to-head for the ‘Champion of Champions’ honors.
Sydney’s Olympic Stadium will be a long way from the snow and ice of Sweden’s Pite Havsbad, where the Solbergs retained their ROC Nations Cup title; just 100km (60 miles) from the Arctic Circle, last year.
Ironically, Oliver is half Swedish and will be representing Sweden when he races for the ‘Champion of Champions’ Title on the Saturday night; head to head with his Norwegian father and a host of other international stars.
Oliver, 23, has been rallying since he was 15 years old and won several crosskarting championships before winning the 2018 RallyX Nordic Championship and the FIA ERC1 Junior title the following year.
He joined Hyundai as the team’s third driver for the 2022 World Rally Championship and moved to WRC2 last year with Skoda, winning his first event at Rally Sweden.
This year he led the WRC2 for most of the season before a puncture in Chile caused him to lose the championship title to Finnish driver Sami Parjari.
His efforts turned plenty of heads and he was recently signed by Toyota for next year’s WRC2 where he will represent Sweden driving a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 for Printsport.
Petter Solberg made his debut in the World Rally Championship in 1998 and was signed by the Subaru factory team for a full-time drive at the end of 2000.
He finished second in the 2002 world championship before clinching the title in 2003, winning Telstra Rally Australia on his way to the crown.
In the following nine years as a full-time driver he never finished worse than sixth in the WRC.
From 2005 to 2008 Petter’s Subaru teammate was Australian Chris Atkinson.
In 2013 he moved to rallycross and in 2014 won the inaugural FIA World Rallycross Championship before going back-to-back the following year.
He won the teams’ championship with his own Volkswagen-backed operation and won the teams championship in 2017 and 2018 before his full-time retirement from the sport.
The Race Of Champions comes two weeks after the 2025 Supercars opener at Sydney Motorsport Park (Feb 21-23) and one week before the opening round of the F1 World Championship in Melbourne (March 13-16), creating a massive month of motorsport in Australia.
In Sydney, the Solbergs will be going head to head with no less than four-time Formula 1 World Champion, Sebastian Vettel; current F-1 ace Valtteri Bottas; seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup; reigning Supercars champion Will Brown; Extreme champion Molly Taylor; nine-time FIA World Rally Champion, Sébastien Loeb; 11-time X-Games Gold medalist, Travis Pastrana; seven-time FIA World Rallycross Champion, Johan Kristoffersson; former FIA F2 champion and F-1 driver, Mick Schumacher and two-time European Rally Champion, Kiwi, Hayden Paddon.