Super3 star ready to make step up in Team 18 machinery
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 24 November 2022
There may be a scramble among Super2 teams to make the grid next year, but one driver who does not have this concern is current Super3 Series leader Kai Allen.
Allen jumps from the third to the second tier next year alongside Eggleston Motorsport, the team which has helped him surge to the top of the 2022 Super3 standings with one round to go.
The teenager is expected to race one of the Team 18 Holden ZB Commodores currently driven by Supercars stars Mark Winterbottom and Scott Pye.
“It will be really cool to be racing a Team 18 car with Eggleston,” he told AUTO ACTION.
“The teams are struggling, so it will be interesting to see what they can do.
“But we are all locked in and ready to go. Eggleston Motorsport brought them off Charlie (Schwerkolt) three years ago, so there was never much concern and it is good to know I will have a car.
“Looking forward to next year because it will be pretty cool being a new car to learn.”
Kai Allen has been carving up the Super3 field in his ex Jamie Whincup Holden VE Commodore.
It means Allen will remain behind the wheel of Triple Eight Race Engineering built machinery having driven an ex Jamie Whincup Holden VE Commodore this year.
The Mount Gambier teen has powered the chassis Whincup won nine races in 2010 to even more success, collecting six wins and a record-breaking nine pole positions so far in 2022.
Although Allen is focused on securing the Super3 title at the upcoming VALO Adelaide 500, he has already shifted some attention to 2023 having cut some laps in a variety of Gen2 cars.
He has driven Pye’s Commodore, plus a Ford Mustang from both the Dick Johnson Racing and Blanchard Racing squads at Sydney Motorsport Park, Queensland Raceway and Winton respectively.
Kai Allen and Eggleston Motorsport is expected to race with Team 18 Commodores in 2023.
Allen said he learnt a lot of things from the experiences including a huge shift in driving styles between the two generations of Supercar.
“I have driven the Erebus Supercar at a couple of ride days and have just driven Scott Pye’s and Tim Slade’s car last week, so a lot of laps and it was really cool to get some laps ahead of next year,” he said.
“I learnt so much just because they are so different with all the aerodynamics and big wings.
“It is a bit of different technique compared to the old VE where you drive it hard to go hard, wherethe new cars drive like a GT car.
“It took a while and felt a bit foreign, but I learnt so much with all the different braking and steering techniques.”
The team fielding the current Super2 Series leader Declan Fraser, Triple Eight Race Engineering has announced it will not return to the feeder series.
But one Supercars outfit that will race in the second tier series will be Erebus Motorsport, which will collaborate with Terry Wyhoon’s Image Racing, while Tickford Racing and Walkinshaw Andretti United are also expected to take part.
The 2022 Super 2 and 3 seasons will conclude at the VALO Adelaide 500 on December 1-4.
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