Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: Dale Wood takes Australian V8 LASTCAR Lead after stupid accident at Mountain

Sunday 12 October 2014

Dale Wood takes Australian V8 LASTCAR Lead after stupid accident at Mountain

Dale Wood picked up his 5th last-place finish of his career, while Chris Pither picked up his 3rd last-place finish of his career, when their #21 Advam/GB Holden retired with crash damage after 45 of the race's 161 laps. The finish came in Wood's 32nd start, and Pither's 17th start. and moves Dale Wood into sole possession of the 2014 V8 LASTCAR Championship lead.

The resurfacing of the Mt. Panorama circuit caused carnage throughout practice, qualifying and the race. During qualifying three cars crashed. The first car in the wall was David Reynolds in the #55 Bottle-O Ford, who crashed hard at Reed park after trying to get around Todd Kelly in the #7 Jack Daniels Nissan, causing the first of two red flags in the session.

Next to crash was Jamie Whincup in the #1 Red Bull Australia/Air Force Holden, who crashed at the cutting (turn 4), bringing out the second red flag of the event.

Shane Van Gisbergen slapped the wall at the dipper (turn 15) after the session restarted, but the damage wasn't major and he managed to complete the qualifying session.

The biggest shunt of the event was reserved for the final practice session on Saturday. Going into turn 2, Warren Luff lost the brakes on the #2 SP Tools Holden, spinning on just the rear brakes, he collected Craig Lowndes, sending both cars into the turn 2 tire barrier, with Luff's car flipping over onto it's roof. While Craig Lowndes' car was repaired, The #2 SP Tools Holden's chassis was safety compromised, forcing the team to withdraw from the event.

Despite Chazz Mostert in the #6 Pepsi Max Ford originally starting in the rear, Todd Kelly in the #7 Jack Daniels Racing Nissan stalled on the starting grid, causing him to drop to the rear of the field and as a result of stalling at the start, had to start from pit-lane.

By lap 3, Ant Pederson in the #111 Super Black Racing Ford had fallen to the rear, but Chazz Mostert returned to last by lap 4. On lap 8, Michael Caruso in the #36 Norton Hornet pitted, falling to the rear in the process. Next to pit was Tim Slade in the #10 Supercheap Auto Holden, taking him to the rear of the field. Several drivers fell to the rear as the pit-stops cycled through, and by lap 20 last-place belonged to Todd Kelly in the #7 Nissan Altima.

Then on lap 26, Luke Youlden, who had taken over from Fabian Coulthard in the #14 Lockwood holden in a pit-stop, locked up heading into the chase, bogging the car in the sand and triggering the first safety car, dropping them to the rear of the field.

Luke Youlden held the last-place until lap 46 when two incidents occured that would seal Dale Wood as the leader of the 2014 Australian V8 LASTCAR championship. The caution came out when Fabian Coulthard in the #14 Lockwood Holden, and the first incident was car #6 going into the wall at turn 2, where at the time the track was starting to break up (I also think the track may have been breaking up at the dipper also), as everyone was slowing up at the top of the hill, David Wall in the #21 ADVAM/GB Holden came around the blind turn 9 and ploughed into the back of Andrew Jones in the #8 BOC Holden, the force of which sent Jones into the back of Nick Percat/Oliver Gavin (didn't see the crash so not sure who was in the car), the stupid crash ended Wood's race. Andrew Jones finished 3 laps down in 14th.

After a 68 minute red flag the rest of the bottom five was filled out within the following 40 laps. Next to fall out was Steven Johnson and David Wall in the #17 Wilson Security/1994 Tribute Ford, who suffered a trans-axle failure at the top of the mountain, sending the #17 into the wall and out of the race, his teammate Scott Pye in the #16 Wilson Security Ford, who after crashing at turn 2 just before the red flag was called, then a suspension failure on lap 66 sending car #16 hard into the wall at the chase. Pye was unhurt, but the car was totaled, Tim Slade in the #10 Supercheap Auto Holden who firstly slammed the wall at turn 6, then arrowed across the track and into the inside wall at turn 7 and Robert Dahlgren in the #34 Valvoline Volvo, who smacked the wall at the cutting (turn 4) after giving Shane Van Gisbergen in the #97 VIP Petfoods Holden a bit too much room. All of these crashes brought out five of the 10 cautions in the race.

Australian V8 LASTCAR Statistics

With just 8 races left in the championship, Only Ford and Nissan can stop Holden taking out the 2014 Australian V8 LASTCAR Manufacturer's championship, and only if one of the two manufacturer's has a driver finish last in every race from here to final race at Sydney.

Lastcar Standings.

The Bottom Five

Dale Wood/Chris Pither	45 Laps	Crash
David Wall/Steven Johnson	64 Laps	Crash
Scott Pye/Ashley Walsh	70 Laps	Crash
Tim Slade/Tony D'Alberto	102 Laps	Crash
Robert Dahlgren/Greg Ritter	114 Laps	Crash

Manufacturer Standings:

Holden: 14

Ford, Nissan: 8

Volvo: 4

Mercedes: 1

Driver Standings:
Dale Wood: 5

Todd Kelly: 4

Tim Slade, David Reynolds, Robert Dahlgren, Scott Pye, James Moffat: 3

David Wall, Jack Perkins: 2

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

Why was Dale Wood's accident at the top of the mountain? Dale Wood didn't slow down as he was coming up to what he full knew was a blind corner, and he didn't have a spotter at the top of the mountain for tracking safety cars and track blockages.

No comments:

Post a Comment

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.