Gardemeister lacking Mecsek preparation time

Toni Gardemeister fears he won’t be as well prepared as normal when he contests the Canon Mecsek Rally in Hungary this week, round eight of the 2011 Intercontinental Rally Challenge.

Fast Finn Gardemeister is running his own team, TGS Worldwide, in this year’s IRC. He said the two-week gap between the rounds in Czech Republic and Hungary has created an unexpected challenge for his squad.

“We won’t do a test before the rally because we needed to fix the car [after Zlín],” said Gardemeister, whose ŠKODA Fabia Super 2000 was hampered by a series of mechanical issues on Barum Czech Rally Zlín last month, including a double clutch failure. “Two of our team stayed in Czech to work on the car but this is not easy because there are a lot of things to do and we only had two guys to do it.”

Gardemeister is eighth in the IRC drivers’ standings having scored points on all five appearances his team has made since its debut in the series on Rally Islas Canarias El Corte Inglés in April.

“I made a good step [in Zlín] and I feel our car had a very good set-up for the second day,” said the 36-year-old. “But we cannot go any further because we need new [components] for the car. Every event has been new for me this year so Hungary will make no difference. I’ve been looking at some inboard [footage] and for sure the result can be good.”