Rookie's race against time with broken collarbone

As his rivals prepared for Newcastle, Eggleston Motorsport Super2 rookie Kai Allen was forced into a recovery mission from a broken collarbone.

Allen’s maiden Super2 starts were prefaced by a freak injury sustained in a mountain biking accident, a plight similar to Shane van Gisbergen’s in 2021.

Early in the 2021 season, van Gisbergen required surgery after an accident, and raced — and won — at Sandown three weeks later.

In a twist of fate, Allen is driving an ex-van Gisbergen ZB Commodore — but there were fears he would miss Newcastle due to his injury.

South Aussie teenager Allen was forced into surgery just 10 days out from the season-opening Thrifty Newcastle 500.

From there, Allen was in a race against time before he went racing.

However, Allen — still aged just 17 — managed to put the injury behind him and finish an impressive fourth in debut.

Post-surgery, the Mount Gambier-born driver dashed to Melbourne, where sisters Sienna and Nyah — both pro netballers — are based.

Allen takes the chequered flag in Newcastle

There, Allen’s sisters dropped everything to help their brother, with physiotherapists and chiropractors helping fast-track the driver’s recovery.

“It’s a familiar story in Supercars to what happened to Shane, and it happened to me,” Allen told Supercars.com.

“I wasn’t even on a trail or anything — I came down a grass hill, and there was a dip in the hill and it caught me out.

“I went over the handlebars and almost high-sided, and I felt it snap straight away.

“Snapped the collarbone, chipped a bit of the bone off and had surgery in Mount Gambier.

“Flew to Melbourne the next day — my two sisters are pro netballers, and I was using their physios and chiros to help me.

“I had one rest day, then I was back on the simulator two days after surgery, and trying to move it as much as I could."

Allen also spent stints in hyperbaric chambers, but doubts crept in when he sat in his Eggleston Commodore for the first time post-surgery.

The Allen family Pic: Sienna Allen

“I went to the workshop and sat in the car before they left, and I couldn’t tighten the seatbelt up,” he said.

“I thought, ‘Here’s trouble’. But I got a Simpson HANS device — like Shane did — to take the pressure off the collarbone, and that was a game-changer.

“Sat in the car in Newcastle, tightened the belts and felt fine. Once you’re on track, the adrenaline kicks in and you forget about it.

“I had great people around me, my sisters stopped everything to get their people to help. Without them, I would’ve had no chance.

“It was a bit of a scare, but we got through and brought home some great results.”

Allen, the youngest driver in this year’s Super2 field, heads to Perth off the back of a flying visit to England, where he underwent driver coaching with Rob Wilson.

There, Allen lapped Silverstone in a Ford Puma and sharpened his toolbox as he continued his rapid recovery.

Allen was a dominant force in the Super3 category series in Perth in 2022, grabbing pole and winning both races to score a round win.

'It’s a very competitive field this year'

The teen reiterated his surprise in his Newcastle results — he finished sixth in the finale — but was determined to remain a factor at the front in Perth.

“It’s a very competitive field this year,” he said.

“It’s cool to be towards the pointy end, but staying there is the hard part.

“I didn't have any expectations going into Newcastle, I just wanted to go out there and do my best."

For the first time, the Dunlop Series will conduct races with no lap count, with races now running over a 40-minute period regardless of laps recorded.

The combined Dunlop Super2 Series and Dunlop Super3 Series fields will be on track twice on Friday April 28 for opening practice.

They go straight into qualifying on Saturday morning before Race 1 on the Saturday.

There will be one final qualifying session on Sunday morning before Race 2 on the Sunday.

Super2 and Super3 drivers will tackle two 40-minute races at next weekend's Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint.

All drivers will feature in a signing session at the grassed area near General Admission on Saturday (12:40pm-1:10pm).

Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint: Session times

All times AWST

Friday, April 28

Saturday, April 29

Sunday, April 30