WORLD Rally championship competitor Oliver Solberg will compete on the Visit Conwy Cambrian Rally at the end of this month, driving a Volkswagen Polo R5.

The son of former World Rally Champion, Petter Solberg, the 21-year-old will return to the Welsh forests for the first time since making his World Rally Championship debut competing on Wales Rally GB on the same roads in 2019.

The Monster Energy and HTB Racing driver said: “I think everybody knows Wales is a very special place for my family and those roads are really, really nice ones to drive.”

Later in the year he and his co-driver Elliott Edmondson will travel with Hyundai Motorsport for the recce for Rally Japan, but before that they will compete on the Cambrian in the Polo

The Visit Conwy Cambrian Rally is based in Llandudno, the same town which hosted Britain’s last round of the World Rally Championship three years ago. The stages like Brenig, Alwen, Clocaenog and Penmachno are familiar to rally fans the world over, and it’s those roads which have attracted Oliver and Elliott to North Wales.

Despite the 2019 Wales Rally GB being Oliver’s WRC debut, he won the Alwen and Brenig stages – beating his team-mate and father Petter, who was running a sister Volkswagen Polo R5 on the event.

“That was the rally where my father finished his final WRC round and he won WRC2,” said Oliver. “The podium was amazing when he was celebrating the win and saying goodbye.

“It will be really nice to be back in Llandudno again and driving those roads. The organisers for the event have helped a lot with bringing me and the team over and, again, I couldn’t do this without my brilliant sponsors.

“Now, I am so looking forward to driving again. We have some proper roads to enjoy and that’s what we’re going to do. I’m not looking to the times or to anything like that, I just want to enjoy myself and drive with a smile.”

The Visit Conwy Cambrian Rally starts with two closed road stages in the Conwy Valley on Friday, 28 October before the cars venture onto the forest stages the next day.

The Visit Conwy Cambrian Rally is a round of the British Rally Championship; the MRF Tyres British Trials and Rally Drivers Championship; the Motorsport UK Pirelli Ravenol Welsh Rally Championship; the Welsh Historic Rally Championship supported by Brian Dennis Motorsport and Marsh Commercial; the Association of North West Motor Clubs Championship, and the Bowler Motorsport Championship.

Further information on the event can be found at:https://cambrianrally.co.uk/