Toni Gardemeister enters Mille Miglia European Championship rally in Italy
Hallinta Hoop, 4.4.2007
Since 1997 has 32-years Toni Gardemeister rallied in World Rally Championship serie. Now he makes a brief jump from it by entering Mille Miglia European Championship rally in Italy at 20th-21th April.
Since 1999 Gardemeister has rallied almost exceptionally with WRC. In Italy he steers GT-class Nissan 350Z rear wheel driver rally car, which is build by Astra Team. Gardemeister will also have a new co-driver as famous Tomi Tuominen debuts with Gardemeister. Tuominen is a familiar face from Finnish television. He is a temporary substitute for Jakke Honkanen, who could not make this trip.
– I had an invitation from italian Astra Team to enter a rally in Italy. I’ve done splendid co-operation with Astra Team for many years in WRC. They have successfully build GT-car race cars and now they have made first GT-class rally car. Astra Team wanted me to rally their Nissan 350Z in European Championship rally, which is rallied in area of Milano, told Gardemeister.
– In present season I’ve participated to selected WRC events. WRC Argentina will be rallied in first weekend of May and because I don’t enter for that rally it is excellent that I get driving jobs from other directions. Therefore my driving touch and routine for rallying remains for my next WRC event, Gardemeister continued.
Rear wheel rally car is not a problem
For past seven years Gardemeister has only once seen in starting line with other than WRC car. This was happened approximately year ago as Gardemeister entered Finnish Rally Championship event with rear wheel group-F rally car, BMW M3. He was fastest group-F rally driver in a superior way.
In approx 2 weeks Gardemeister rallies again with rear-wheel rally car. In Mille Miglia European Rally he steers GT-class Nissan 350Z which will offer a different kind of rally event for Toni and Tomi. Both drivers have got used to pace of 4wd and turbo-charged rally as Gardemeister has been rallying in WRC and Tuominen has been a co-driver for reigning Group-A Finnish Rally Chamion Sebastian Lindholm.
– In previous season I had a successfull first rally with my own group-F BMW M3 rally car. I’ve also started my rally career and been successful in it in my early rally years. Therefore we head for Italy with confident and typical minds for rally driver; We’ll be hunting for victory – as I’ve always done in my rally career, visioned Gardemeister.