Holder Puts It All Out There

Holder Puts It All Out There

A committed performance from Mt Maunganui rally driver David Holder saw him narrowly miss out on taking top honours at the final round of the New Zealand Rally Championship. The team managed to bring their Stadium Finance & Stella Pumps backed Fiesta home in second place, resulting in third overall for the 2013 Championship.

"The first stage of the rally was by far the hardest I've ever done. Intense dust made it impossible to see more than five metres, and when you are tapped out in fifth gear it makes things scary even for the bravest. Josh and I struggled a lot!” claimed Holder

At one point during the first stage the pairing were coming along a fast 4th gear section of road looking for a tight left hand corner as described in the pace notes. Abruptly appearing out of the dust was a similar corner but heading in the opposite direction!

"Suddenly the corner was there, I figured I must have heard the direction wrong, so out of instinct, I backed the car in to head right. At the last minute the actual left hand corner appeared out of the dust, so it was a quick U turn and we were back on track" admitted Holder.

The team pushed hard throughout the day’s opening stages to lie second with just two remaining stages. Unfortunately a win was out of their control after catching a fellow competitor during the events penultimate stage, which was also the events power stage where competitors gained extra championship points depending on their finish position through the stage.

"It was pretty gutting not to get a clean run through the power stage, we had planned to push really hard, but that's how it goes in rallying, so we just did our best. We are really stoked with the rest of our performance though, and to get several stage wins was just the way we wanted to finish the year” stated Holder.

It's been a challenging year for the team, with plenty of new lessons along the way. But with exciting opportunities on the horizon the team have their sights firmly set on what is shaping up to be another thrilling season.

“We are extremely blessed to have such an amazing group of sponsors and supporters. To get the chance to drive the Fiesta has been a dream come true thanks to Stadium Finance. We’ve got some pretty exciting plans going on in the back ground currently! And I can't wait to share them when a few things are confirmed... so watch this space!” exclaimed Holder.

Thanks to our loyal sponsors, Stella Pumps, Stadium Finance, Magnum Compliance, Gull, Rally New Zealand, Maurice Trapp Group, PRELIM, Chris Brown, Mckerchar Industries, Bay Panel Beaters, Mount Wheel Alignment, Speedy Signs, Sew Hot Monograms, Repco Mt Maunganui, Ultimate Ford Tauranga and Attentive Design.

ENDS

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