Mount Maunganui's David Holder and co-driver Jason Farmer won their first New Zealand Rally Championship title by securing victory in the one-day Rally Gisborne.
It was a dream result by the pairing, who wrapped up the series win after the penultimate event on Saturday, with the final rally of the five-round series still to run in Coromandel next month.
Holder drove the same Mitsubishi Evo 8 that his mentor, Kiwi rally star Hayden Paddon, used to win the rookie and junior national rally titles in 2006.
Holder and Farmer, of Hamilton, have had some ups-and-downs in this season's four rallies. They were third at the season opener in Otago behind Paddon and defending NZRC champion Ben Hunt. Holder then secured his debut national victory in Whangarei - the same event at which Paddon also won his first national rally back in 2007.
Going into round three in Canterbury, Holder had a fairly comfortable points' lead over Dunedin's Emma Gilmour and Hunt, but crashed out in an incident the 27-year-old describes as "more frustrating than serious.''
Heading to Gisborne, Holder's championship lead over Gilmour was down to just six points. But Gilmour's engine failure and another off-road incident for Hunt meant Holder could take a comfortable win and therefore an unassailable lead in the championship.
Holder did not realise he was in contention for the championship title until the final stage of six in Gisborne.
"Before the last stage, Jason, my co-driver, told me we could win the title and the guys from Volt TV were putting extra cameras in the car, so we had some fun and made sure we got through cleanly to the finish,'' Holder said.
Gilmour was frustrated engine failure ruined her chances of gaining an overall title.
"I'm very disappointed to say the least. After our win at Canterbury, we were really hoping to battle with David for the championship. Unfortunately that all came to an end on stage three when our engine stopped,'' she said.
Gilmour is now focusing on securing the runner-up position in the NZRC that she holds by two points over Te Aroha's Graham Featherstone.
