In only his third rally young Southland driver David Holder was quickly on pace and clocked up a solid string of stage times before an eventful run would result in retirement early on day two of the 2010 Nelson Rally held over the weekend.
The event, also the penultimate round of the New Zealand Rally Championship, offered an excellent chance for Holder to learn pacenotes with the competitors able to drive a reconnaissance pass over the stages to check the organizer supplied notes before the rally start.
David, with his brother James as co-driver, having never driven on pacenotes, was learning and improving as every kilometer passed, with the team starting strongly through the first four stages to hold 3rd overall in the Allcomers Rally and be the leading Allcomers 2wd by 1min.
But the dream run wasn’t to last with an incident filled afternoon ahead. Running wide early in special stage 5 left the teams Toyota Levin stuck in heavy gravel on the side of the road, freeing the car after some frantic digging they continued on only to end the day with a puncture on the final stage.
Sunday morning dawned on day two, and the rocky roads once again took their toll on the teams tyres, puncturing halfway through the first stage of the day. Changing the tyre at a spectator point, they battled on until the final blow of the event struck with a suspension strut collapsing at the end of the stage.
With the all female service crew of Rachel, Julie and Adina coming to the rescue and a new suspension strut fitted, the Holder team rejoined the rally and used the final afternoon to gain further experience on pacenotes.
“Its been a bit of an adventure this weekend” states Holder, “We came to Nelson looking to learn and we have headed away more experience than we could have imagined, Digging the car out, changing a puncture during a stage, breaking a strut and then driving out on a puncture, we’ve packed it all into the one event” “We’re looking forward to a clean run in the next rally”
The team would like to thank sponsors Attentive Design and Strang Automotive for their continued support.
