Henning Solberg
Date of birth: 8th January 1973Lives: Spydeberg, Norway
Marital Status: Married
First world rally: 1998 Swedish Rally
Henning Solberg, elder brother of 2003 FIA World Rally Champion Petter, started his motorsport career in Bilcross and Rallycross events and was the 1993 Norwegian Rallycross Champion. In 1994 he won the Nordic Hillclimb and Rallycross Championship.
Solberg then notched up five consecutive Norwegian Rally Championship titles between 1999 and 2003.
1998 was the year when he made his World Rally Championship debut, finishing in twelfth place in the Swedish Rally in a Toyota Celica GT–Four with Runar Pedersen in the co–driver’s seat. The following year the pairing contested Wales Rally GB in a Ford Escort WRC.
In 2000 Solberg contested four WRC rounds, three with Pedersen, two of those in the Escort. The final two rounds were contested in a Toyota Corolla WRC with Ola Fløene. Sweden and Portugal were contested by Solberg and Fløene.
In Finland and Great Britain in 2001, Solberg was joined by Cato Menkerud as co–driver, and the pairing contested 32 WRC events through to the end of the 2006 season. The duo have competed variously in a Toyota Corolla WRC, Subaru Impreza WRC, Mitsubishi Evo 6, Peugeot 206 WRC and Ford Focus WRC; culminating in 2006 with their busiest season, 12 events in a Peugeot 307 WRC.
Rally Turkey in 2006 saw Solberg’s best ever WRC result as he took third and the first podium position of his career. He finished the season in eighth position in the final championship standings with 25 points. For 2007 Solberg is joining the Stobart VK M–Sport Ford Rally Team for a full championship campaign in a Ford Focus RS WRC06.
It certainly was a Solberg affair up to the halfway point of the 2007 WRC season. With five top–five finishes, including a third placed podium finish on his home event of Norway, Solberg was the star for the Stobart VK M–Sport Ford Rally Team.
He finished the 2007 season sixth in the championship standings after finishing Argentina, Sardinia and Greece all in top–five positions. It was a slowish start for the Norwegian but once he found his feet in the new Stobart Focus RS it was a constant improvement. He finished fourth in Sweden and narrowly missed out on points–scoring places in Mexico and Portugal.
Locked in a fierce battle with his brother Petter and the Subaru team all year, he finished strong despite a run of four straight rallies he was tackling for the first time in his career; Catalunya, Corsica, Japan and Ireland.
Despite never having even visited the country of Japan, let alone compete in it, Solberg finished an incredible third place for his third career podium. Another new event earlier in the year was Germany which was special for two reasons; it was Solberg’s first proper, tarmac rally ever in his career and secondly it was his 50th WRC event.
Solberg finished the 2007 season in sixth position just one place behind his brother.
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