Matt Payne takes Penrite Racing to victory on streets of Adelaide

And while Allen went into the round coming off his best results, he could not conclude the season with a fairytale finish. However, the 20-year-old rising star enjoyed one of his most consistent weekends to date, finishing with three top-five finishes.

The youngster’s campaign to fight the title began with an impressive Friday performance during both qualifying and the weekend’s wild opening affair as the wet weather wreaked havoc on the streets.

Qualifying in seventh place, Allen made up a spot to sit sixth before an incident brought the race to a halt after extensive damage to the wall at Turn 8, bringing out the red flag with ten laps to go.

Unfortunately the race never resumed due to the wall being unfixable, but Allen was promoted to fifth post-race following a penalty given to Cam Waters for an earlier incident – a critical result in his pursuit for the title.

On Saturday, Allen once again made the Top 10 Shootout to qualify in eighth place and enjoyed a mostly solid run during the 78-lap affair, gaining a position early thanks to Payne moving aside. Allen sat within the top 10 for most of the race and only faced drama when he made contact with Will Brown after trying a last-ditch attempt to make important ground.

Allen wasn’t able to make the move stick, but it didn’t have an effect on him as he still managed to finish three places higher than where he started to round out the top five.

Allen continued the trend of his Adelaide Grand Final on Sunday by making the Top 10 Shootout and moving up the order during the race. This time though, Kai picked up his best result of the round with a fourth-place finish having charged his way through the order after starting from ninth.

Ahead of Allen, Penrite Racing teammate Matt Payne enjoyed a faultless day, leading from lights out to the chequered flag (outside of the pit stop cycle).

Starting from second place, Payne got the jump on Feeney and raced out to build a gap, never looking back as the team executed a faultless strategy to help the Kiwi to a six- second victory over eventual 2025 champion Chaz Mostert.

Earlier in the weekend, Payne played the team game to help Allen’s effort in taking out the title as moved aside for both Friday and Saturday’s races to finish in 6th.

Following a solid weekend from both drivers, Penrite Racing ended the year in second place in the team standings – its highest ever finish in the Supercars Championship since linking up with Grove Racing in 2021.

Penrite Racing will now look towards building on a successful 2025 campaign with the 2026 season to kick off at Sydney Motorsport Park for the Sydney 500 on 20-22 February.

MATT PAYNE

#19 Penrite Racing Driver

To win the year the way we did was an absolute ripper for the team. We had a fast car and used it to put on a clinic, Payne said.

It was really cool and reminiscent of 2023 and what we did here. I knew that if we could get the start and had the pace to pull away, we could bring it home. So I’m really relieved and super pumped to finish the season on a high.

I’m just super stoked for everyone in the team, as it showed what we can do when we’re here in Adelaide and we have the car right.

Today’s result was a bit of a bittersweet moment, though. It is a little frustrating, but we had our good days this year and unfortunately that moment at Sandown was a bad day — which is the reality of this championship. We saw it with Broc today; it can easily not be your day through no fault of your own, so it’s a bitter pill to swallow in a really tough format.

I’m just really happy for everyone that we got the win today, as everyone deserves it and has worked really hard.

This result gives us plenty of confidence for next year, so we’re going to look forward to the break where we can relax and enjoy it, and then go full steam ahead for 2026.