Gardemeister - 100 not out

Rally Mexico, round three of this year¹s World Rally Championship, will mark an important milestone for Suzuki works team driver Toni Gardemeister who will make his 100th World Rally Championship start.

Having started his WRC career on the 1996 Rally Finland, Gardemeister is also the factory driver who has been competing in the series for the longest amount of time - despite the fact that he is still only 32 years of age.

Gardemeister has contested Rally Mexico only once before; in 2005 when finished sixth in a Ford Focus. But his main memory of that event is of the heavy flu that hampered his performance. On the occasion of his 100th world rally though, the Finn is feeling upbeat and in perfect health.

“To rack up 100 world rallies is a nice achievement,” he said. “I’ve been in the championship for quite some time now, but it’s a bit misleading as there are quite a lot of people who have done more rallies than me. I’m looking forward to Mexico: I was so ill the last time I did this rally that I struggled to finish sixth. Maybe that’s why I don¹t remember so much about it! But I do remember that the stages were nice, although there were some very big rocks that seemed to come out of nowhere. But I’m aiming to enjoy my 100th event and score some more points for Suzuki. I think that¹s definitely possible.”