How Grove Racing acquired its second rising Supercars star  

On the finish of June 2024, an possibility lapsed that may have in any other case tied rising star Kai Allen to Dick Johnson Racing. On the time, Allen was the defending Super2 champion, and he went on to take third within the sequence and likewise raced at Sandown and Bathurst for DJR as an endurance co-driver, alongside Will Davison. 

What was unusual about this relationship, nonetheless, was what occurred subsequent. It was confirmed that Allen would transfer to affix rival Ford group Grove Racing for 2025, and he did so with the vocal blessing of DJR administration. 

“He is heading to a terrific group the place they know win and he’ll do a terrific job there,” DJR co-owner Ryan Story mentioned in a press release. “[We are] very excited and glad for him.” 

On the time, it appeared to be a case of the timing simply not understanding. What was much less identified – and definitely much less public – was that when DJR launched Allen, group administration was working onerous on securing not solely 2023 Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki, but in addition the engineering corps he’d labored with at Erebus Motorsport and Bathurst 1000 successful co-driver, Todd Hazelwood.

It was fairly comprehensible that, with such a giant change incoming, DJR administration would prioritise stability on the opposite facet of the storage, within the form of Davison. In any case, since becoming a member of the group in 2021, the third-generation driver has by no means completed the championship outdoors the highest 10.

So it was that 19-year-old Allen began his season alongside Matt Payne who, at 22, gave Grove a driver lineup that had a mixed age that was, within the phrases of 1 crusty pitlane observer, “youthful than a few of Fernando Alonso’s racesuits.”

However whereas Broc Feeney was toying with the opposition to comb the three Hidden Valley races, Allen was the person planting a flag of his personal within the Darwin soil.

His third place in certainly one of Saturday’s dash races was spectacular sufficient however, on Sunday, the way in which he dealt with the a number of challenges of qualifying, a single-car high 10 shoot out after which managed his automotive’s tempo and tyres to choose off second place – per week earlier than his twentieth birthday – provoked comprehensible acclaim from most within the pitlane.

Higher but, the motive force he handed for second within the closing laps was team-mate Payne, who joined Allen and Feeney (who, it’s generally simple to neglect, is simply 22) in forming the youngest podium within the historical past of Supercars/Touring Automobiles down beneath.

All which means Allen has vaulted himself to twelfth within the drivers’ championship, only one spot behind one other rising star, Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Ryan Wooden. With Payne closing in on second place after his fourth 200 point-plus spherical in succession, it might effectively be that Grove might lock each its drivers into Supercars’ new-for-2025 finals system, which takes impact after the Bathurst 1000 in October.

One of many drivers who can be pushing to shut the gap to Allen and earn a spot among the many high 10 is Davison. The veteran left Darwin seventeenth within the factors, 113 behind Allen, and he and DJR would bear in mind that another unhealthy spherical might finish his finals ambitions. 

Workforce administration not too long ago confirmed that Davison has a contract in place for 2026, in response to the questions that inevitably come a couple of 42-year-old racing driver operating within the mid-field.

It appears to be like unlikely there can be any such queries directed at Grove – doubtlessly for a decade. 

A 12 months on from these sort parting phrases from DJR, it might effectively be that with Allen, the Melbourne group have pulled off its second driver coup of the final three years.