Kai Allen has written his name into the Supercars history books by taking out the first of four races at Ruapuna Park, near Christchurch in New Zealand.
In the 37-lap race held over from last Sunday’s cyclone-affected Taupo meeting, the 20-year-old steered his Grove Racing Ford Mustang to a narrow 0.742s win.
He held out 2023 champion and points leader Brodie Kostecki (Dick Johnson Racing) over the final tours of the race.
The win was set up when Allen made his pitstop five laps before Kostecki and took two tyres to Kostecki’s four. The net gain for the youngster was five seconds, with 16 laps to run.
Kostecki looked like he was going to march past, giving Allen a tap on the bumper with seven laps left, but the Grove Racing driver held him off.
The championship leader was then left instead in a battle for second, following pressure from a closing Walkinshaw TWG Racing Toyota GR Supra of Ryan Wood.
“I am a little lost for words,” said Allen, after winning in his 48th Supercars start. “To stand here with the number one in front of my car – it was coming and I knew it would happen.
“I knew that the two-tyre stop was going to be pretty powerful. We took it into our own hands. With about five laps to go I thought, ‘here we go’, but it is very hard for the guy behind to pass.”
Ironically, Allen established his Supercars credentials when he was an endurance driver for DJR, until the team passed on an option and released him mid-2024. Grove Racing wasted no time in signing him for 2025…
Kai Allen
Photo by: Daniel Kalisz / Getty Images
“I knew I was on Struggle Street five or six laps in,” Kostecki said. “I was flat-out and it [the car] was nervous. I fell into the clutches of Woody again, we have a bit of work to do.”
On the podium once again after giving Toyota its first Supercars win last week, Wood is beginning to look like a consistent threat.
“We have got something going on, we will have to look [at it],” he said. “We got up to Kai, I am so happy for him. We raced a bit coming up. I am not good in the spots where I need to be good, we have spots we have to work on for tomorrow.”
The first Supercars racing lap at the track was messy. From 10th back, there was a concertina of cars and some of the drivers who saw a local yellow flag expected a safety car and slowed.
But the track stayed green and by the time the confusion cleared, the front four cars were four-seconds clear of the pack, and going away. The man who lost out most was Broc Feeney, who dropped to 13th.
“The first three marshal points were waving yellows and safety car boards, but they never actually called it,” Allen explained.
Matt Payne backed up Allen’s result with fourth for Grove Racing, 17 seconds ahead of Anton De Pasquale in the Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro.
James Golding took fifth in the Blanchard Racing Team Ford ahead of Tickford’s Cam Waters (Ford) and Chaz Mostert (WTWG Toyota).
It was a disaster of a Friday for Triple Eight, as Will Brown suffered damage to the rear of the car and dropped to the back of the field, finishing 17th. After Feeney lost five spots in the opening lap melee he had a slow pitstop, and eventually finished in 10th.
Racing continues over the rest of the weekend, with two Sprint format races on Saturday.
We want to hear from you!
Let us know what you would like to see from us in the future.
Take our survey
– The Autosport.com Team
Read the full article here