Solberg and Doran team up in World RX

Reigning World Rallycross champion Petter Solberg will team up with British driver Liam Doran in a rebranded SDRX team with Monster Energy drink backing for his title defense. Although the pair's Citroen DS3s will be constructed and run separately from their respective workshops in Sweden and Britain the pair will work together on events and score points towards the teams' championship title as SDRX.

"Both Liam and I drive Citroens, so we thought why not team up for a joint venture on the championship?" said Solberg. "This is something we have been talking about since the end of last season.

"I want Liam to do well and he feels the same about me, so we will both be pushing really hard together. We have made so many improvements to my car over the winter and we will be thinking of the championship from the start, but I also really want to win events.

"The competition will be so hard this year with all the Volkswagens, Fords, Peugeots, Audis and people like Manfred Stohl. It will be really tough."

While Solberg had a dream year in 2014, Doran was hampered by mechanical problems and had his license suspended for a number of rounds. That came after a strong 2013 in which he won two events as a driver and a further two as a team owner.

"I'm coming back from a really bad year, so I have a lot more to do this year than he does," said Doran of his tie-up with Solberg. "It's very promising. Petter will push me hard.

"Who would you want to team up with in rallycross? There's no bigger name in rallycross than Petter Solberg. If you had told me a couple of years ago that I would be teammate with Petter, I would have laughed at you, so to be doing this now is pretty cool.

"Every driver here wants to win, and so do I. I'm more motivated than ever to do it, I've won before so there's nothing to say I can't do it again."

Originally on Autosport.com