Kai Allen took Grove Racing and Ford to the top step of the podium at the second Hidden Valley Supercars race in Darwin.
The rising Supercars star celebrated his 21st birthday a week early when he moved from sixth on the opening lap to take on the cars at the front, including team-mate Matt Payne. Allen was able to track down early leader Cam Waters, who started from pole position in the Tickford Ford Mustang. But Waters, who won the race on Friday, had no answer to the pace of the leader, running on lap 41, he was out of second place.
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By the checkered flag Allen was on the run, pulling out a nearly nine-second lead over the final 20 laps of the 70-lap trip. It was his fourth podium finish in five races at the Hidden Valley circuit.
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“I knew I had something early in the race,” said Allen, who quickly found the perfect spot for his pitstop.
“When I came out with those tires that just passed by Cam, I knew we could take off.
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In the final laps of the race Waters had to fight hard to catch Brodie Kostecki. The Dick Johnson Racing Ford driver was feeling the effects of the flu for the second day in a row, but his cause was helped somewhat when Payne had to serve a five-second penalty in his second start, after he was later adjudged to have slipped at the start.
Waters admitted his Mustang didn’t have the pace for a second win of the weekend.
“I’m happy to get another stage, I’m happy to increase what we had at that time, we still got the trophy when the car was incomplete,” he said. “We took a big step forward this weekend.”
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Kostecki was physically stressed after the race, and the hotter conditions than on Friday exacerbated the effects of ‘flu and a malfunctioning drink bottle made matters worse. While he was being treated by medical staff his trophy was accepted on the podium by race engineer George Commins.
Completing Ford’s sweep of the top five spots was Will Brown’s Triple Eight Mustang. He had to take charge early after starting outside the top ten, while teammate Broc Feeney was better than he was on Friday, starting sixth and gaining position on the opening lap. But the green cars weren’t quite as sharp as their Ford rivals and he lost ground to Chaz Mostert with twelve laps to go.
Mostert took the lead in the race. After running with the leaders he was unlucky to get some steering fluid (ironically dropped by Walkinshaw’s TWG team-mate Ryan Wood) and raced away, dropping from sixth to 14th. Since then he has been on a campaign, gaining lap positions and eventually reclaiming that sixth place.
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Anton De Pasquale was leading the Chevrolet Camaro drivers in eighth place. The No. 18 Team driver started as low as 20th on the grid after finding he couldn’t catch Qualifying, but hard driving lifted him onto Feeney’s rear bumper at the end of a tough race.
Feeney’s points lead was further reduced, dropping from a pre-race 59 to 36, with Payne second.
The Supercars and drivers will return to the track on Sunday for another lap, 200km race.
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