Tauranga rookie of the year rally driver David Holder made some fundamental errors during the weekend's Gisborne meet after running out fuel before crossing the finishing line.

The Holder team started the weekend's Rally of Gisborne seeded at one, but results were a bit of a mixed bag.

David Holder.

David admits to mis-calculating fuel consumption, but says he is happy after beating lap times of the previous driver of his new Ford Fiesta group N rally car.

'I was pretty excited about stepping into a new vehicle and taking on a new challenge at this weekend's Rally of Gisborne,” says David.

'We started out good, but last power on Saturday. On the last stage of the day we ran out of fuel. That was disappointing because we were sitting at third place over all. We got a whole lot of time penalties.

'We borrowed some fuel and finished the meet. There was a pretty high attrition rate with plenty of people going off the road. It's been my dream to have a go in one of these cars and we are extremely grateful to Stella Traffic owners Trev and Debbie for supporting us, and also to Stadium Finance directors Tony and Amos for the use of the car.”

The Rally of Gisborne is the final round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship.

The 23-year-old driver has being given the use of the Ford Fiesta group N rally car after proving his speed throughout this year's championship in his older Toyota Levin and securing both the Rookie and Open 2wd National Championships with one round to spare.

Holder is partnered with his older brother James as co-pilot.

'We're racing identical cars against guys who are very quick and have lots of experience in the Fiestas. We can't expect to be on pace with them at the first event but we'd like to think we're not too far behind”

Even with a two month break from the last round, the Holder Brothers Racing pairing have been keeping busy, having held a sponsors ride day for their supporters as well as spending a full day being mentored by Production World Rally Champion, Hayden Paddon.

'Hayden is a legend, he came all the way down to Mt Maunganui to teach me more about pace-noting and attracting sponsors, his advice will be a big help in getting support for next year.”

'Actually I've managed to secure a bit of extra support already. I proposed to my girlfriend Adina in the weekend and she said yes. It's fair enough to say it has been an exciting build up to this rally.”