The Finnish Rally Championship (SM) season continues next week with the Kouvola round. The entry list reveals that none other than Toni Gardemeister, who turned 50 earlier this year, will be among the competitors.
Gardemeister will take part in the rally with his BMW M3, which he tested in June on both tarmac and gravel. His co-driver will be Topi Luhtinen.
Gardemeister will compete outside the main SM categories, in a class that features 15 other drivers.
Watch the videos from Gardemeister’s tests below:
If the embed does not appear above, you can view the videos via this link.
Gardemeister last competed in 2022 at the Snow Rally Rings event in a Renault Clio Rally4. Since then, he has appeared in two Finnish Championship rallies in course car duties.
After a long career in the World Rally Championship, Gardemeister has since focused on running his own team. He also works with Toyota’s WRC team.
A total of 100 crews have registered for the Kouvola SM Rally. In the top class, a fierce battle is expected once again as SM1 leader Esapekka Lappi faces off against young talent Tuukka Kauppinen and Teemu Asunmaa, who skipped the previous championship round.
Also aiming for success in the top category are Niclas Grönholm and Anssi Rytkönen, who surprised many by finishing second in the last round in the Turku region. Canadian Brandon Semenuk will add further international flavour to the class.
Semenuk has won the American Rally Association (ARA) championship with Subaru for the past three seasons. In Kouvola, he’ll compete in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.
Multiple Finnish champion Juha Salo, 49, will also be back behind the wheel in the SM series. Salo will drive a Toyota GR Yaris in the SM5 class. He last competed in last year’s Lahti SM Rally, where he impressively finished fourth overall in the Yaris.
The Kouvola SM Rally takes place on 11–12 July.
See the full entry list for the Kouvola SM Rally here.
