Allen details immense sacrifice to reach Supercars
Kai Allen details family sacrifice to reach Supercars
Teenager picked up karting at eight, and made Supercars debut at 18
Penrite Racing driver to resume season in New Zealand
At 19, Kai Allen has already tasted the highs and lows of motorsport, from losing a Super3 title in the final race, to winning the Super2 title a year later.
Now one of three rookies on the Supercars grid, Allen — the youngest driver in the field — has been on a whirlwind decade-long journey from Mount Gambier to the big time.
Many racers have their rags-to-riches stories in world motorsport, and Allen’s rise to Supercars is the latest in a line of stories of graft and toil.
A fan of Cars character Lightning McQueen as an eight-year-old, Allen was gifted a go-kart for Christmas.
He quickly rose through the ranks, having started his career in karting at the Mount Gambier Go Karting Club at Glenburnie.
Allen won 12 state titles and became the Australian Karting Champion in both the cadet and KA2 junior classes before turning 15.
At 14, he shifted to cars, racing Excels and the Toyota 86 Series at Townsville after turning 15 — the legal racing age — before moving to the Gold Coast.
The Allen family has put in the hard yards to help their kids, with Kai’s sisters Sienna and Nyah both elite level netballers.
Speaking on Supercars’ Drivers Only podcast, Allen revealed he spent 48 weekends a year with father Jason — who was also his main mechanic and support crew — travelling to karting events.
“Eight years old, started karting, and it fast-tracked pretty quickly,” Allen said.
“My two sisters moved away when they were 14 and 17 to Adelaide, which is four hours from home. The journey to get there, obviously a lot of sacrifice. Dad and I were always in the eastern states.
“All these other kids had dads that raced, whereas Dad and I were self-taught, we were in the back of a van, going racing.
“Dad had his own business to run, Mum worked for him, then at one point, Mum was working two to three jobs, and Dad was running his business and helping Mum with her stuff.
“A massive commitment for our family, but it’s pretty cool to see it paying off. Dad and I spent 48 weekends two years in a row.”
Allen reached the Supercars ladder in 2022, joining Eggleston Motorsport in Super3. He claimed a record 11 out of 12 pole positions, but an Adelaide crash cost him the title.
Come 2023, and he closed out the Super2 title at the same track, in a year he scored a Bathurst 1000 start in a Dick Johnson Racing Ford.
The teen was watched on by parents Jason and Nicola in his Sydney debut in February, with Allen beginning coming to grips with the intense nature of the main game in Melbourne.
“There’s been glimpses of speed,” Allen said.
“It was good in qualifying at AGP, seventh was right with Matty. There’s been promising signs.
“I'm starting to understand, I wasn't aggressive enough at AGP in Race 1 when I got turned. “The last race…. I really started to understand how I needed to race, the guys I'm racing against, the aggression that each person.
“The results haven’t been ideal, but I’m taking a step forward each round."
Allen will resume his 2025 campaign in New Zealand on April 11-13.
