‘A lot to learn’ for Supercars’ newest winner

The somewhat unusual statement represents the Grove Racing’s young gun’s determination not to rush his own progression.

Team boss Brenton Grove noted earlier this year the biggest challenge has been tempering the eager Allen’s ambitions.

Allen has worked closely with mentor Garth Tander on goal setting throughout his 18 months in the championship to date.

The 20-year-old insists his breakthrough victory achieved last time out at Christchurch has not changed his short-term ambitions.

“I really need to make sure that I’m still sticking to my training routine and really working hard,” he said.

“I’ve only won one race, so it’s not like I’m the best there is. I’ve still got a lot to learn.

“Even we’ve seen over the last couple of rounds, it was just about being consistent.

“I could have got two wins in a row. We didn’t quite get the pit stop strategy right on the first race on Saturday from Christchurch.

“So for me, it was just bring it home in a second and get those points and sort of bring back some of the bad results we’ve had this year with a bit unfortunate luck.

“My goal is just to be top five every qualifying and that’s going to be a hard goal this weekend, but I’m not aiming for pole positions or race wins.

“I just want to keep continuing on this trajectory to make sure that I’m learning and I’m having consistent processes to keep working to be better and better.”

Allen noted Symmons Plains is one of Grove’s “most challenging tracks” and said the team has “dug deep” during the break to understand its struggles.

Teammate Matt Payne won the Sunday race at the venue last year, but did so after starting outside the top 10 and vaulting to the front on strategy.

“Tassie’s always been a challenge for us,” said Payne, who also declared a recent wrist injury will not hamper him in the car.

“I felt like I’ve never seen seemed to quite unlock it down here, even though we did win last year, but I feel like I’d really like to do it on pure pace.

“So I’m really focussed on rolling out in practice and seeing what we can do.”

Practice 1 at the Tasmania Super440 gets underway at 2:05pm AEST.