At just 18 years and five months old, Mount Gambier motorsport prodigy Kai Allen has become the youngest person ever to win a Dunlop Series Championship in the event’s 24-year history.
After the heartbreak of losing the 2022 season Super3 Championship lead at last years season decider, the Eggleston Motorsport driver redeemed himself to win the Dunlop Super2 Series Championship at the VAILO Adelaide 500 on the weekend to beat current Triple Eight star Broc Feeney’s 2021 record aged 19 years, one month and fifteen days.
“It is a bit surreal, it just feels weird at the moment. I don’t even know what’s happened but give it a couple days and when it sinks in it will be super cool,” he said.
The Mount Gambier motorsport talent was behind Super2 championship leader Zak Best by only 30 points heading into the weekend and qualified sixth for the first race of the round and fourth for the final race of the season.
“You always want to be higher, it was good because we were right behind Zak who was our main competition, so I think he qualified third and second,” he said.
“We were always right behind him which was good to keep the pressure on.”
Allen placed third on Saturday for Race 1, giving him a 33-point buffer over Best who was hit with a 15-second penalty for a crash with Zack Morris to finish 13th.
“We knew we had a good race car which we showed that in the first race and we charged the field and ended up third – that’s when Zak copped his penalty and we were leading the championship for the last race.”
With Best placing second, Allen’s fifth place finish in Race Two of the weekend was enough to secure the Super2 crown a close six points ahead of the Anderson Motorsport driver.
“I always want to be winning every race, but you get to that point it does not matter who wins the last race, it matters who wins the championship,” he said.
“I made sure I didn’t make any mistakes in that last race and brought it home. It didn’t matter about how fast I was driving or anything, I just wanted to bring it home, bring the championship home for them (Eggleston Motorsport).
Allen drove to redemption after a crash at turn 8 last year on the infamous street circuit cut the ladder leader’s Dunlop Super3 Series Championship dream short.
“I think it was sweet to definitely get that one back considering last year was strong all year in the Super3 category leading right to the last race and then leaving with pretty much nothing was quite heartbreaking, mainly for the team with the amount of effort they put into me throughout the year.
“Even this year seeing how much work they put in and then to pull into pit lane and see all the smiles and how happy everyone was and how relieved and to see Ben and Rach Eggleston crying and really excited, it was a very, very special moment to have them and also my family there as well, so I’m going to cherish that moment forever.”
Prior to the VAILO Adelaide 500, Allen travelled over to the United Kingdom with Pilatus Aircrafts Australia chief executive officer Sebastian Lipp to practice on a Red Bull Formula 1 simulator.
“I had good fun on the sim, that was for sure,” he said.
“It was great to drive on that and learn a lot from the guys. They were racing in Las Vegas at that point and (I got to) watch how the operations work and they took us for a tour of the workshop.
“To see how they ran an F1 team was super cool. I am so grateful for the opportunity and just learning as much as I can when I went over there.”
The Mount Gambier young gun has had a record-breaking year, making his Repco Supercars debut in October as the Dick Johnson Racing (DJR) team’s first-ever wildcard entry Repco Bathurst 1000 representing Shell V-Power Racing.
