Tom has an interview with Petter Solberg!

[Tom]

As some of you may be aware, I am a Radio Presenter for a station based in Kent, England called 107.8 Academy FM and during my three years at the station I have interviewed various personalities such as Gino Rea (Moto2 Rider), John McPhee (Moto3 Rider), Jenny Tinmouth (BSB Rider) and Anthony West (Moto2 Rider).

Now however, I've decided to focus on four wheels and who better to kick off the proceedings than an interview with 2003 WRC World Champion, Petter Solberg? I will be pre-recording it at 12PM GMT this Thursday for airplay one afternoon, but I will be posting it on various social media websites as well as the video sharing ones of course. Needless to say, I am really looking forward to this!

Are there any questions that you would be interested in me asking him? If I like them, I'll write them down and ask a few!

 

[rallymorten]

Petter is a good place to start indeed, had the honor of meeting him in person earlier this year (yes, miracles happen, even in DK)

You should definitely ask him about why motorsport is interesting to him and what keeps and kept him going. Any motorsport-personality-interview should have those two.

You may also ask him about what his favorite rally and motorsport event in general is. If you're really going for it, ask him what the best car he's ever driven was.

 

[Tom]

Petter is a good place to start indeed, had the honor of meeting him in person earlier this year (yes, miracles happen, even in DK)

You should definitely ask him about why motorsport is interesting to him and what keeps and kept him going. Any motorsport-personality-interview should have those two.

You may also ask him about what his favorite rally and motorsport event in general is. If you're really going for it, ask him what the best car he's ever driven was.

Those were all along the same lines as some that I intended to include, thank you very much for your input though as it's greatly appreciated!

 

[Jimlaad43]

@Tom If you have any Scalextric, take a small track in with a Petter Solberg car and get him to drive it through the interview.

 

[Tom]

@Tom If you have any Scalextric, take a small track in with a Petter Solberg car and get him to drive it through the interview.

I wish it was that simple, sadly he's in Norway and the interview is taking place over the phone!

 

[Roger the Horse]

Hmm...

Ask him how he believes it might feel to drive a Rallycross car in a rally. I can see that being an interesting question.

Also, ask him which manufacturer not currently represented in the WRC he'd most like to see enter.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Try and call him Henning once.

 

[Furinkazen]

Ask if he would ever go back to the WRC or he feel his career is over, please Kamui

Incidentally, Wales Rally GB 2003 was the first WRC event I watched. I still got the memories of watching Petter take that win, that started me into rallying.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Yeah, ask him which rally he would say was his best drive and which was his favourite ever.

 

[SVT Cobra GT]

Of all the WRC cars ever entered, Group B, Group A etc which one would he most like to drive?

 

[Jimlaad43]

Which rally (as in Australia, Japan, Finalnd, etc) was his favourite.

 

[Roger the Horse]

I think I've seen him asked that before. I believe he said it was Wales.

It's worth avoiding questions which are too generic, although going completely offtopic and asking him something who his favourite Powerpuff Girls villain is is not advisable either. Unless you're interviewing him and he's wearing a Powerpuff Girls T-Shirt. Then that's OK. Ask him if he's wearing a Powerpuff Girls T-Shirt actually. That'll make me happy. Actually it'd probably just make me feel embarrassed because you followed my stupid advice. Umm...

Ask him whether it's more fun to drive a modern rally car, a modern rallycross supercar, or the old Ford Escort RS he sometimes competes in historic rallies in.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Ask him "What was your most embarrassing moment in a World Rally Car?" That should get a chuckle or too. Are you able to link us to the audio of the interview after it will have happened perchance.

 

[Mike Rotch]

Ask him "What was your most embarrassing moment in a World Rally Car?" That should get a chuckle or too. Are you able to link us to the audio of the interview after it will have happened perchance.

Or scariest - my bet would be when his steering wheel came loose at the Acropolis in 02!

 

[Roger the Horse]

Ask him whether he likes Last Christmas...

 

[Jimlaad43]

Or scariest

Or the hinkelsteins.

 

[Vegard]

Ask him this: In a world without S. Loeb, how many world championships would you have?

 

[Vegard]

edit: double post

 

[Roger the Horse]

If you retrospectively go back and imagine how the points would look if Loeb were to be disqualified from all rounds, with everyone finishing behind him moving up one position to fill the gap left open, Solberg would have won the 2005 & 2010 World Rally Championships. Markko Märtin would have won the 2004 championship, Gronholm would easily have won the 2006 and 2007 championships, Hirvonen would easily have won in 2008 and 2009.

I can't be bothered to work out the years after that, as the whole power stage thing makes it far too confusing, but safe to say Solberg would not have won in any of them.

2010 sans Loeb in particular looks like it would have been a particularly spectacular year, and it's really a shame that we never got to see it...

Actually, that would make an interesting little final question. Which years, sans Loeb, would he have won the WRC in? I bet he wouldn't guess 2010.