Kai Allen has taken Grove Racing and Ford to the highest step of the rostrum on the second Supercars race at Hidden Valley in Darwin.
The rising star of Supercars celebrated his twenty first birthday per week early when he rose from sixth on the opening lap to choose off the automobiles in entrance, together with team-mate Matt Payne. Allen managed to trace down early chief Cam Waters, who began from pole place within the Tickford Ford Mustang. However Waters, the winner of Friday’s race, had no reply to the chief’s tempo, operating broad on lap 41, and got here dwelling in second place.
By the chequered flag Allen had run away, pulling a lead of practically 9 seconds over the ultimate 20 laps of the 70-lap journey. It was his fourth podium end in 5 races on the Hidden Valley circuit.
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“I knew I had one thing early within the race,” stated Allen, who gained early observe place with a brief fill in his opening pitstop.
“As soon as I received out on these contemporary tyres and received previous Cam, I knew we might draw back. It was not simple going from fifth however I managed to do it. I might see Cam transferring round on Matty, and the boys made the decision and I received previous.”
Over the ultimate laps of the race Waters needed to combat exhausting to carry off Brodie Kostecki. The Dick Johnson Racing Ford driver was feeling the consequences of flu for the second day in a row, however his trigger was aided considerably when Payne needed to serve a five-second time penalty at his first of two pitstops, after behind adjudged to have crept at the beginning.
Waters admitted that his Mustang didn’t have the pace to take a second win on the weekend.
“I used to be pleased to get one other podium, I’m pleased to maximise what we had then, we nonetheless received a trophy when the automotive was not excellent,” he stated. “Now we have taken an enormous step ahead this weekend.”
Kostecki was fairly bodily distressed after the race, with a lot hotter situations than skilled on Friday amplifying the consequences of his ongoing ’flu and a failing drinks bottle making issues even worse. Whereas he was being handled by medical employees his trophy was accepted on the rostrum by race engineer George Commins.
Finishing the Ford sweep of the highest 5 placings was the Triple Eight Mustang of Will Brown. He needed to placed on an early cost after beginning outdoors the highest 10, whereas team-mate Broc Feeney was higher than he had been on Friday, beginning sixth and gaining a place on the opening lap. However the blue automobiles had been once more not fairly as sharp as their Ford rivals and he misplaced a spot to Chaz Mostert with a dozen laps to go.
Mostert put within the drive of the race. After operating with the leaders he was unfortunate to seek out some energy steering fluid (paradoxically dropped by Walkinshaw TWG team-mate Ryan Wooden) and run off the observe, dropping from sixth to 14th. From that time he was on a mission, gaining positions lap by lap and finally restoring that sixth place.
Anton De Pasquale was the most effective of the Chevrolet Camaro drivers in eighth place. The Crew 18 driver began a lowly twentieth on the grid after discovering that he had an absence of grip in Qualifying, however a dogged drive lifted him proper onto Feeney’s rear bumper on the finish of a troublesome race.
Feeney’s factors lead has been additional lowered, dropping from 59 pre-race to 36, with Payne second.
The Supercars and drivers will return to the observe on Sunday for an additional 70-lap, 200km race.
1
Ok. Allen Grove Racing
Ford Mustang S650
70
2
Ford Mustang S650
70
8.6157
3
B. Kostecki Dick Johnson Racing
Ford Mustang S650
70
0.5484
4
M. Payne Grove Racing
Ford Mustang S650
70
1.0129
5
Ford Mustang S650
70
3.0875
6
Toyota GR Supra
70
2.5907
7
B. Feeney Triple Eight Race Engineering
Ford Mustang S650
70
5.4512
8
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
70
0.3111
9
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
70
7.5858
10
J. Ojeda PremiAir Racing
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
70
2.9041
11
Ford Mustang S650
70
0.6240
12
Ford Mustang S650
70
6.1158
13
R. Grey Dick Johnson Racing
Ford Mustang S650
70
0.7415
14
Toyota GR Supra
70
10.1879
15
D. Fraser PremiAir Racing
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
70
0.5789
16
Toyota GR Supra
70
1.3416
17
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
70
1.2185
18
C. Murray Erebus Motorsport Penrite
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
70
2.8757
19
C. Hill Brad Jones Racing
Toyota GR Supra
70
5.2710
20
J. Partitions Triple Eight Race Engineering
Ford Mustang S650
70
2.0553
21
A. Cameron Blanchard Racing Crew
Ford Mustang S650
70
4.0284
22
Z. Bates Matt Stone Racing
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
70
13.7510
23
J. Stewart Erebus Motorsport Penrite
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
69
1 Lap
24
R. Wooden Walkinshaw TWG Racing
Toyota GR Supra
4
65 Laps
Retirement
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