Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: Calls for safety improvements as Pye creates 2nd place logjam

Monday 25 August 2014

Calls for safety improvements as Pye creates 2nd place logjam

Scott Pye picked up his 5^th Last-place finish of his career when his #16 Wilson Security Holden was involved in another scary two-car accident on the opening lap of the final race at Eastern Creek. The finish came in Pye's 26^th start, and moves him into a logjam in second place of the Australian V8 LASTCAR championship.

The field was contracted again to 23 cars after Robert Dahlgren in the #34 Cure Brain Cancer/Valvoline Volvo withdrew due to the damage sustained in a race 2 accident. Craig Lowndes started the race trailing the field following a qualifying mishap, but by turn 2 Rick Kelly dropped to the rear, but then at turn three, disaster struck.

Mark Winterbottom in the #5 Pepsi Max Ford bumped his team-mate David Reynolds in the #55 Bottle-O Ford, sending him into Scott Pye in the #16 Wilson Security Holden, sending both of them into the wet grass and sliding both of them into the wall, Scott Pye nosing his car into the wall and David Reynolds backing his car into the wall, ending both their days. However, David Reynolds managed to limp back to the pit-lane, recording the completion of a lap and relegating Pye to last-place.

Rounding out the bottom five is James Courtney in the #22 SPTools Holden who suffered a Gearbox failure on lap 11, Mark Winterbottom in the #5 Pepsi Max Ford who triggered the opening lap crash involving Reynolds and Pye, leading to a drive-thru penalty, plus additional tire problems towards the end of the race and Jack Perkins in the #18 Jeld-Wen Ford.

With 13 races to go in the 2014 Australian V8 LASTCAR series, and heading into the Pirtek Enduro Cup, Todd Kelly in the #7 Jack Daniels Nissan is still out in front on 4 Last-place finishes, however with Pye's last-place finish, 5 cars are now jammed in second place with 3 Last-place finishes each.

The Bottom Five

Scott Pye	0 Laps	Crash
David Reynolds	1 Lap	Crash
James Courtney	10 Laps	Gearbox
Mark Winterbottom	50 Laps	Running
Jack Perkins	51 Laps	Running

Lastcar Standings

Manufacturer Standings:

Holden: 12

Ford: 8

Nissan: 7

Volvo: 4

Mercedes: 1

Driver Standings:

Todd Kelly: 4

Tim Slade, Dale Wood, David Reynolds, Robert Dahlgren, Scott Pye: 3

David Wall, James Moffat, Jack Perkins: 2

Nick Percat, Garth Tander, Scott McLaughlin, Shane Van Gisbergen, Will Davison, Craig Lowndes, Michael Caruso: 1

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How Juniorgeneric defines a Last-Place finisher

Australian V8 LASTCAR'S Official Definition of a "Last-Place Finisher" (LPF)

For the purposes of the Australian V8 LASTCAR championship rankings and statistics, a "Last-Place Finisher" (LPF) is a driver(s) who, after qualifying for a V8 Supercars Championship Points-Paying race, the result must be confirmed from official sources, or unofficial sources failing that. Only one driver (or two in a endurance race) can be classified as the LPF for that race.

Meeting those requirements, the LPF can be any driver classified as such for any reason, including, but not limited to.
1) A "did not start" although it should be noted that there is a difference between my definition of "did not start" and Brock Beard's definition of "Did not Start".
For example, in Bathurst 2015 Chazz Mostert and Cameron Waters' #6 Pepsi Max Ford had a huge accident during practice that injured Mostert and all but wrote off the car. Car #6 was withdrawn, and therefore I don't count Mostert and Waters as finishing last. Under Brock Beard's definition, however, Mostert and Waters would have finished last instead of David Wall and Chris Pither.
2) An entrant who encounters an event once the race has started which prevents the driver(s) from finishing ahead of any other qualified entrants, including both DNFs and drivers who finish under power but laps down*

*Only when all the cars in the race are running ahead of the LPF

3) A decision to “start and park” the driver’s entry (Extremely rare in V8 Supercars)
(4) a disqualification handed down by V8 Supercars and/or track officials that subsequently classifies the driver(s) in the final position behind the unofficial LPF.

Australian V8 LASTCAR shall not consider the LPF as anything else, including but not limited too
1) Any DNQ's
2) Any driver's who's car withdrew before the race start.
3)The lowest-ranked driver who finishes the race under power (unless all cars finished under power, actually quite common in V8 Supercars)
4) A driver(s) who finished last initially, however post-race disqualifications usurped the spot.
5) A driver(s) who may be catagorised as finishing last for exhibition events (I may bring these back at some point in the near future, I need more accurate numbers for the events before I start them up again)
6) Anything in non-V8 Supercar Main game (again, insufficent historical data)
7) A driver who was running last when the checkered flag fell, however because they greeted the checkered flag but a drive who was in front of them at the end of the race, however was not running at the end of the race. In that instance the driver who doesn't finish the race will fall behind the driver whom is still running at the end of the race.

In the rare event where official results or a preponderance of unofficial results are later updated with more accurate information about who was the LPF for that event, Australian V8 LASTCAR rankings and statistics shall be updated to reflect that change.