Petter Solberg is excited to be driving in front of 'rally-mad' Irish fans for the first time as he heads to the emerald isle for the inaugural Rally Ireland, the penultimate round of the World Rally Championship.

Following a disappointing season in the Subaru Impreza, Solberg is still currently battling over fifth place in the driver standings with his brother Henning after the Stobart Ford driver pulled back some ground with third place on the Rally Japan.

Nonetheless, the Norwegian driver is confident of a good result in Ireland, despite the fact he has never driven in the country before.

“I have never rallied in Ireland before so it will be very new for me, but I am looking forward to it. The fans in Ireland are rally-mad which is really good. It's always nice to drive in front of people who are really into it.

“It would have been good to do a few rallies earlier in the year to get a feel for the surface, but still we prepare and focus 110 per cent. It will be very interesting I think, especially with the chance that the 2007 championship can be decided there.”

Subaru too are anticipating a good event, because while they haven't competed there as of yet, the success customer teams using the Impreza have had over the years should work to their advantage.

“We haven't had the opportunity to test in Ireland this year, but we have the benefit of knowledge gained by the many customer cars that are running and winning in Ireland,” said managing director Richard Taylor.

“We know it's going to be a great challenge with very different tarmac roads to any other round and we're looking forward to it. It will be very exciting that there will likely be more Subaru WRC cars than at any other World Championship rally. I hope that we and all the other Subaru entries will put on a strong performance for the fans.”