'Weird' weekend stalls Allen charge

Kai Allen’s hopes of a comeback Repco Sprint Cup win were dealt a near fatal blow with a “weird” weekend in Townsville.

The Penrite Racing driver retained fifth in the championship through Townsville, but heads to Perth well down on teammate and leader Matt Payne.

Allen left Darwin a reduced 219 points from the lead, and 204 behind Payne. Payne, though, put 113 points on his teammate across Townsville, with Allen ninth for the round.

After finishing fourth in the Townsville opener, Allen collided with Ryan Wood in the Saturday race, before a slow stop in the Sunday race consigned him to seventh.

Allen did play the team game in the opener, stepping aside for Payne, who finished on the podium.

With two rounds left in the Sprint Cup, Allen is 317 points behind Payne, and just 25 ahead of Team 18’s Anton De Pasquale. Will Brown, meanwhile, is 100 points behind Allen.

“A bit of a weird weekend in Townsville,” Allen said.

"We had a good Friday, got fourth and then Saturday was a really big struggle for our side of the garage.

“Saturday’s qualifying was difficult and then in the race we had a few issues and ultimately didn’t get a good result coming home in 12th.

“It was good for us to bounce back on Sunday where I had a really, strong Top Ten Shootout lap. The Penrite Racing crew did a really good job getting the car back to where we needed it.

"In the race we were looking strong, had great pace with a different strategy, but just didn’t have a good second pit stop, which hurt us a little bit, but still earned some good points – but that happens and the crew will bounce back as well.

“I’m really looking forward to coming back swinging at Perth and having a really strong fight for the rest of the Sprint Cup into the Supercars Finals.”

Allen finished 11th, 11th and eighth in last year’s Perth races. Track action in Western Australia commences on Friday July 31.