Your cousin’s a decent person, right? You like them, get on with them. Enjoy a Christmas catch-up.
Happy to hand over the equivalent of €100,000 to them? Thought not. But Oliver Solberg is.
Solberg won the European Rally Championship’s Junior class last season and scooped the €100,000 [$118,717] prize. The 19-year-old is now fully immersed in a World Rally Championship program with Hyundai Motorsport and doesn’t have time to compete on the two ERC events he was scheduled to use the prize money for.
So… hello cousin Oscar Solberg. Oliver will hand the money to Oscar, who will expand the program and drive a Ford Fiesta Rally3 instead of a Fiesta Rally2.
“It takes so much time with the world championship this year,” said Solberg.
“I’ve decided to change it to another Solberg. I’m giving that money to my cousin so he can do the European championship this year.
“I think it’s a fantastic thing to do. My cousin is really fast, so watch out! He’s very happy and it’s a fantastic opportunity for him and I wish him the best for the season ahead.”
Oscar, the 25-year-old son of Petter Solberg’s brother Henning, competed at a high level earlier in his career – tackling the Drive DMACK Cup for Fiesta R2Ts in the 2016 WRC. Since then, he has been restricted by budget to local Norwegian and Swedish events.
Now, however, he will step from a Volvo 242 in the Norwegian series to M-Sport’s latest four-wheel-drive car in the European championship.
