After a solid start to day one of the VINZ International Rally of Whangarei, Mount Maunganui rally driver David Holder's changed dramatically in the last two short special stages of the day.

Photo by: Wayne Cockburn/motorsportphotography.co.nz

Holder went into the three afternoon stages of the rally in a solid second place behind Richard Mason, and ahead of Tauranga's Phil Campbell.

By the end of stage six, Mason had slowed down after experiencing mechanical issues and Campbell had retired in stage five following clutch/gearbox issues leaving Holder in first position at the end of the day's main road stages.

"We're pretty stoked to be where we are. I asked Malcolm on the way into service what the results were and he gave me a bit of a grin," says Holder.

"He told me we were 8 seconds up on Mason, so I asked him where Mason was and he said second. This put us in first place which was a big surprise for me."

Following a service, the rally moved to a double run through of the 1km Pohe Island Super Special Stage.

David says unfortunately there was a big fuel leak on stage five which caused them some problems inside the car.

"We got to the end of the stage and there was a lot of fuel in the boot of the car. We cleaned it up, tightened the fitting which had come loose and carried on. Unfortunately We had another fitting come loose, and we lost what we think was about another 20 litres of fuel."

He wasn't entirely sure how much fuel they had lost, and he says they weren't allowed to refuel at service so they carried on to the last two short stages where they run out of fuel.

"We were forced to refuel, and unfortunately we ended up with a five minute penalty because of that," says David.

"We have dropped back to sixth position overall now. I'm not too gutted though. We have had a great day out there and the results we have had today are definitely not what I expected.

"We came out here today to do our own thing and to get to learn the car a bit more and we got a whole lot more than we bargained for."

Rotorua's Sloan Cox managed to get his EVO10 repaired and patched up and posted a respectable second place on the final run through Pohe Island.

Phil Campbell is hopeful of rejoining the rally tomorrow. Wairarapa drvier Richard Mason has finished day one in first place, ahead of Lance Willams in second, and Matt Summerfield in third.

Day three of VINZ International Rally of Whangarei is held to the south of Whangarei.