Full RallycrossRX season for Petter Solberg

Petter Solberg will race in all nine rounds of the 2013 FIA European Rallycross Championship. The former World Rally Champion made the announcement this morning, the news coming a couple of weeks after he said that he would drive in the opening round of the series at Lydden over the Easter weekend (March 31-April 1).

Solberg (38) began his career in rallycross, quickly establishing himself as a consistently quick racer who was destined to have a professional career in motor sport. His spectacular rise to fame in the World Rally Championship was capped with the 2003 World championship title won with Subaru. Having been a regular visitor to rallycross events in Scandinavia, Solberg has always said that he would return to rallycross before he retired as a driver.

Having called time on his life in the World Rally Championship at the end of last year, Solberg has spent the winter considering many options, but has settled in rallycross and now chosen to focus his programme on the FIA European Rallycross Championship.

“I don’t do things by half. When I thought about it, I knew the RX Championship was the one for me. It’s going to be one hell of a show this season and I want my team to be part of that,” said Solberg, adding that IMG’s involvement in the championship has swayed his decision. “Those guys [IMG] know how to make the show,” he said. “We have five rounds of this year’s championship being shown live on television. And when three of those five live rounds are in Norway, Sweden and Finland it makes complete sense for me to be competing here.”

The newly rebranded RallycrossRX, the championship has a promoter for the first time in its 40-year history with IMG appointed by the FIA to promote the championship for at least the next ten years, and holding exclusive rights to develop a FIA World championship.

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