Kai Allen 24th and last after disastrous GC500 opener
Allen's Finals hopes take heavy blow after alternator issues
Penrite Racing driver makes trip to medical after race
Kai Allen's miserable Saturday at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 has been compounded by a post-race trip to the medical centre.
The Penrite Racing sophomore's title hopes took a heavy blow as he battled through a wet 250km opener with a failed alternator, finishing 24th and last after being forced into a late stop to replace a dead battery.
However, in an effort to keep charge, Allen was forced to switch off both his cool suit and helmet air, and while temperatures were in the mid-20s, high humidity made for an uncomfortable afternoon.
Penrite Racing CEO Brenton Grove revealed that after finishing the race, Allen was taken for medical attention, but declared that his young charge will be right to take the reigns again on Sunday.
“He got a double whammy unfortunately, with the alternator issues we had to turn the cool suit and the helmet air off," Grove said on the broadcast.
“So the poor guy got whacked around a little bit, but he’s strong, he’s fit, he’ll be fine.
“He’ll get care tonight, make sure that he’s getting some fluids onboard and get what he needs, and we’ll do some deep diving to see what happened.”
Allen slipped from fifth to eighth in the standings, and faces a tall order despite being the first driver outside the Finals cut-off, needing to claw back 53 points on Cam Waters in seventh.
Allen's Finals hopes will now likely rest on a race win, which would automatically qualify him for a berth at the Semi Final in Sandown, regardless of his points position.
However, Grove declared that Allen now has a full license to throw everything he can at a race win, with Matt Payne's third place finish giving him confidence that Penrite Racing can give Allen the tools he needs.
"That's the other problem isn't it? We lost a lot of points on that car," Grove continued.
"He's a determined young kid, I don't think he would let anyone not let him in the car tomorrow. He's got the freedom to swing for the fences and see what happens now.
"We've had a speedy car here in the past, we didn't quite nail it today. I mean the #19 was still P2 on the road, P3 afterwards, but we've got to make sure that we can try and get the car up the front and get some points."
It's a second consecutive race hit with reliability woes for the 2023 Super2 champion, whose Bathurst campaign was undone by a loose brake duct, triggering a spectacular failure inside the final 15 laps.
The final day of the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 begins with Boost Mobile Qualifying at 11:20am local time/12:20pm AEDT.
