Held as the third round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship (NZRC), powered by Brother, the Otago Rally began with night stages on Friday night followed up with two full days of rallying. Setting some solid stage times throughout the night Holder, partnered with his older brother James as co-driver, emerged with a 1min 25sec lead in class over the very experienced and quick Tony McConachy, along with being 2nd fwd car overall, leading Fiesta driver Phil Campbell by 25secs while trailing the other Fiesta driver ,Ben Hunt, by 47seconds.
With Saturday dawning bright the Holder Brothers set about doing their best in their little Toyota Levin on every stage of the day.
“We were just focusing on getting every detail right, and making sure we are consistent on every corner. But man some of those crests had us flying!” reckons David
“Once we got up to full race speed we realized that we hadn’t correctly noted when the car would be jumping……we had a few scary moments on stage 8……..but talk amount good fun!”
With massive grins on their face at the end of the stage the Brothers set the 8th fastest time overall and 2nd two wheel drive overall, only beaten by reigning Production World Rally Champion Hayden Paddon.
Heading to the start of stage 9, Holder had grown his class lead to 1min 50sec and managed to claw back 21seconds from Ben hunt throughout the day. However this was about to quickly change in stage 9
“Yeah the little Toyota lifted off the ground around a fast left hander……. we launched off the road and through a fence, bouncing into a paddock. Gutted!” Said David
“Luckily the car was still looking pretty good….and the farmers gate was unlocked! So back on the road we went.”
After losing 3.20secmins in the paddock, the game planned changed for the team with the focus now on getting the Toyota through to the finish to bag valuable championship points. And it paid off as well with both Fiesta drivers ending the Sunday with accidents moving the Holder Brothers even further up the order.
“Dave and I both reckon that the jumps of Saturday along with the challenge of getting out of the paddock made for one of the most fun days of rallying we have had! We took it quite a bit easier over the crests on Sunday to be fair, wasn’t quite as exciting but it was the smart thing to do.”
The Holder Brothers Racing team ended up 2nd in Open Two Wheel Drive NZRC and 9th overall for the weekend with Tony McConachy taking a well deserved class win after winning Sundays stages by 3sec from the Holders and not putting a wheel wrong all weekend.
“We have learnt so much from this weekend.” states David “The biggest thing is really ensuring we have all the detail we need in the notes, this is something we will get sorted for the next rally”
The Brothers are extremely grateful to be given the opportunity to compete after new sponsor Stella Traffic came on board provide financial support to get the Holder Brothers Racing team to the rally.
“Stella Traffic are the main reason we reason we were able to make it to Otago, but a big thanks has to go to Rob Campbell for the loan of a service vehicle to get to the rally. We are extremely grateful to all of our supporters and we are looking forward to getting another strong result for them at the upcoming Rally New Zealand round.”
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