Gardemeister in funding race for 2012

27th December 2011

Toni Gardemeister remains determined to contest the 2012 Intercontinental Rally Challenge despite a major sponsor pulling out just before Christmas.

The former World Rally Championship driver entered his first full IRC campaign this year, setting up his own TGS Worldwide team to run a Skoda Fabia, although with limited resources and testing, and using the still-developing Hankook tyres, he was not a frontunner and ended the season ninth in the standings.

Gardemeister had hoped to come back with a vengeance in 2012, but now faces a race to secure new funding before the season commences at the end of February.

"Unfortunately our main sponsors informed me last week that they will not continue in season 2012," said Gardemeister. "Now we are trying to find some support everywhere as we are ready for the start and finally would like to achieve our goal of podiums. We made a total rebuild of our Skoda Fabia and now the car is in perfect condition."

The Finn admitted that it was late in the day to have to look for a substantial cash injection.

"It's not easy to find the budget during the Christmas week when most companies already signed all the plans for next year, [but] we try to do our best," Gardemeister said.