Allen stunned by rise from 'absolute idiot' to title contender

Four rounds into his Supercars career, Kai Allen felt like an “absolute idiot” after being repeatedly beaten from pillar to post, and sat a lowly 19th overall.

Six months later, the Penrite Racing rookie has emerged as a bolter for the 2025 Repco Supercars Championship, scraping through the Elimination and Semi Finals to reach Adelaide.

It has been remarkable turnaround for the 20-year-old, who in the last seven rounds, has only been out-scored by Broc Feeney, teammate Matt Payne, Will Brown, Cam Waters and Chaz Mostert.

Payne and Waters took themselves out in a moment of madness on Sunday at Sandown, opening the door to Allen to claim the coveted fourth and final place in Adelaide.

While Feeney, Mostert and Brown are established heavyweights, Allen has just 35 Supercars races to his name. While many will — perhaps rightly — put focus on Feeney, Mostert and Brown, Allen will enter Adelaide armed with a shot to pull off arguably the greatest shock in Supercars history.

"Still trying to process it at the moment, obviously,” Allen said on Supercars’ Cool Down Lap presented by Moza Racing podcast.

"Really bummed for Matty. That's first and foremost. He was in the right position to get into that four, but unfortunately had contact with Cam and sort of put him outta the race.

“Car 26, we're through to the four, no worse than fourth in the championship, my rookie season is phenomenal. No way I expected this.

“Let's fight hard over this next week, we've not long to prep Adelaide, but we're going to come out swinging. I’ve got a fast backer [Payne] behind me to make sure that I'm in the best spot I can be for that fight for the championship."

Allen is no strangers to taking title fights to Adelaide. In fact, he has entered the final weekend in with a shot at the crown in each year since 2022.

He missed out on the 2022 Super3 title in heartbreaking fashion, before overrunning Zak Best to win the 2023 Super2 title. Last year, he was beaten by Zach Bates and Aaron Cameron, who he will race in 2026.

When asked about the step from Super2 to Supercars, Allen replied: “You think it's hard? Times it by 10.

“Look back at Round 4 — I was 19th in the championship, getting turned around nearly every race, going through rear bars every race, just looking like an absolute idiot out there.

"And it's not until I really got to Darwin, I really found some mojo and obviously had some up and down races here and there. But the car speed, I think the whole team, we got around each other really well.

“Matty and I are working really well together off track, not only on track. And all those pieces of the puzzle are loading up and we're finally getting some really good results.”

Allen has made his own luck, but trip-ups for rivals have opened the door. Had Andre Heimgartner not been passed on the last lap of the Bathurst 1000 by Feeney, Allen wouldn’t have qualified for The Finals at all. Still, that came on a day Allen fought back from three separate incidents, and also dodged a kangaroo on Conrod Straight.

Twice Allen has raced out of the drop zone to qualify for the next round. Brodie Kostecki (crash), Ryan Wood (reliability) and Anton De Pasquale (penalty) all stumbled on the Gold Coast in different ways. Thomas Randle wasn’t a factor at Sandown, while the Payne/Waters incident will live long in the memory.

Through all the fireworks and drama, Allen — the youngest driver on the grid — has kept his cool, and claimed a Grand Final spot where others threw theirs away.

Therein lies the million-dollar question: can Kai Allen win the 2025 championship?

"I hope so. We'll see what happens,” the Mount Gambier-born driver laughed.

"Obviously this is my fourth year in a row going to Adelaide, fighting for a championship.

“It's not new to me, I'm just in a whole different league in a different car, but. At the same time, 12 months ago at Adelaide I was doing my first ever racing with Penrite Racing.

“Fast forward 12 months. I'm fourth in the championship and fighting for the big crown in this whole sport, which is what I've dreamt of since I've been little.

"Obviously got some really fast and experienced guys. It's a fight in championship, but like we saw this weekend, it's not over to the chequered flag flies. Anything can happen to this sport."