A career at the pinnacle of any sport is challenging to maintain. To be at the forefront of your sport is yet harder. After several years in the cuthroat World Rally circus, a sense of humour is needed to balance the pressures, hardships and successes: no other personality in the World Rally Championship can match that of Henning Solberg.
The Norwegian rally ace, brother to 2003 World Rally Champion Petter, started the Jordan Rally, over a decade after his WRC debut, to mark his 100th such rally.
Henning’s World Rally career started in 1998 in Sweden when he piloted a Shell Norge-sponsored Toyota. He has since gone on to take to the start of many a demanding event over the world’s fastest, roughest and most technical rally roads. He is now of the 20 most loyal drivers in World Rally’s history.
Looking back at Henning’s career thus far, the Scandinavian driver has thrilled rally fans wih his competitive nature, sideways driving style and charisma. He has the silverware to prove his credibility: he has claimed the Norwegian Rally Championship title five times, between 1999 and 2003.
He stepped up his involvement in the WRC from 2004, when he took to the stages in a Bozian-Esso-liveried Peugeot 206 WRC, then the following season in a Ford Focus before he returned to the French marque for 2006 to pilot a Peugeot 307 WRC. In that same year he recorded his first podium result (at the WRC Rally Turkey) and then also third place at the WRC Rally Norway in a Ford Focus WRC in 2007.
He has since been an integral part of the M-Sport Stobart Ford World Rally Team, and has scored a bevy of points for the squad.