Toni Gardemeister joined the exclusive band of world championship rally drivers who have started one hundred world championship rallies in Mexico. His record of events took 12 years to accumulate, from the days when he contested Formula 2 rallies firstly privately then for Nissan and SEAT. His first world event was in Finland 1996, and his second was on his debut with Nissan when he started the Formula 2-only Network Q Rally in Britain. Still waiting for his first world rally victory, Toni has already scored podium results in Monte Carlo (on his debut with Ford), Acropolis and Corsica, while the first of his podium results came in New Zealand in 1999 on his debut with the SEAT World Rally Car team. Toni came to rally sport with one very special talent. In his earlier years he was well known in his native Finland as an expert display driver in which he drove cars balanced on two wheels, an art which he shared with his father with whom he gave many exhibition, When asked if he would display this skill to mark his 100th world rally he declined, saying he had long since forgotten how to do it!

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