Vision released by Supercars has shown just how close the Penrite Ford came to disaster as the kangaroo bounded across the road from the driver’s left.
Allen jinked slightly to his left in what appeared an instinctive move to miss the wayward ’roo, but did not lift the throttle as the frightening moment unfolded at approximately 250km/h.
The 20-year-old made mention of the incident on the TV broadcast post-race, somewhat bizarrely stating he owed the marsupial a beer.
“I had a bit of a target on my back, the car was absolutely destroyed, but we just didn’t give up, kept fighting and fighting,” Allen said of his race.
“The only thing I didn’t hit was a little kangaroo that blew straight past the front of my car at 250 down Conrod and just missed it. I owe him a beer, otherwise it would have been race over.”
Allen scraped into the Finals Series courtesy of finishing in eighth place and having nearest threat Andre Heimgartner lose a position on the final lap.
The Grove Ford driver suffered several bouts of contact during the race, including a major hit from behind courtesy of Brodie Kostecki not long prior to lap 100.
“I thought I was done, I thought it was race over. I looked at the rearview mirror and half of my car was hanging off the side, it was all destroyed,” said Allen, who was also later hit by Will Brown and Jack Le Brocq.
“I lost a lot of straightline and was just struggling from then on. But like I said, we didn’t give up, we kept fighting, kept digging and just picked them off.
“A lot of people crashed in front of me, and I kept chipping away. I had to pass one of the cars with two laps to go, then I lost a spot because I made a mistake and then passed him back.
“The moral of the story is we didn’t stop fighting and we got the result we needed.”
The fact Allen qualified for the Finals added to a fairytale day for Grove Racing, which scored its maiden Bathurst 1000 victory through Matt Payne and Garth Tander.
“If you said to me at the start of this year that I’m going to be in the 10, I’d tell you you’re dreaming,” said Allen, who shared his Mustang with Dale Wood.
“We just kept chipping away, got all the basics right, and to get in the 10 is unreal.
“We’ll just press on for the rest of the year now, we’ve got nothing to lose, it’s full steam ahead, we’ll see what we can do in the Finals.”
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