Kai Allen storms to victory in second Darwin encounter

Kai Allen made the most of a strong strategy call from his Grove Racing squad to snare an impressive victory in the second Supercars race of the weekend at Hidden Valley.

Allen had qualified in fifth place for the race as Cameron Waters backed up his Friday victory by bagging pole position in qualifying, edging out Brodie Kostecki by a tenth of a second with Matt Payne making it a Ford 1-2-3.

Waters held the lead at the start with Payne making the best when the lights went out from row two – although only as a result of jumping the start to pick up a five second penalty.

The early departure of Ryan Wood caused drama when water dropped by his Toyota on the circuit caught out team-mate Chaz Mostert, who had been running in fourth spot before a trip off track dropped him down out side the top ten.

Having moved into second on the road Payne was one of the early stoppers as he looked to get rid of his penalty and he then went on the charge on fresh tyres to ensure that he was right on the tail of Waters when he then made his first mandatory trip to the pits.

Waters held the lead however from Payne, with Allen having fought his way up to third having short-filled his car in the pits.

Allen then got ahead of Payne into second, with Kostecki also clearing the polesitter as his decision to stop early meant he was dealing with rivals on fresher tyres.

When Waters made an error and ran wide, Allen saw the chance to dive in the lead of the race and was able to build up enough of a buffer to keep the lead when he stopped for a second time – even after taking on more fuel to make up for his earlier short fill.

Allen was able to ease away from the pack behind to secure victory by more than eight seconds, with Waters able to hold off the challenge of Kostecki to take second.

That was despite Kostecki feeling the effects of illness, which resulted in him needing medical assistance when he returned to the pits after the chequered flag.

Payne just missed out on the podium spots in fourth ahead of Will Brown, with Mostert recovering well from his early drama to fight his way back to sixth at the finish.

That made him the leading non-Ford driver, with points leader Broc Feeney seventh after his disappointing Friday race and Anton De Pasquale in eighth as the best of the Chevrolets.