Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: Holdsworth last as every Walkinshaw car except Slade tangles at the start.

Sunday 17 May 2015

Holdsworth last as every Walkinshaw car except Slade tangles at the start.

Lee Holdsworth picked up his 9^th last-place finish of his career when his #18 Fuchs/Walkinshaw/Beko Holden was involved in a 4-car crash on the opening lap of the second race at Winton. The finish came in Holdsworth's 149^th start.

Fabian Coulthard in the #14 Freightliner Holden started the race in the rear after a collision with teammate Dale Wood in the #21 in qualifying. As the field filed through turns 1 and 2 catastrophe broke out for the Walkinshaw racing team.

Locking the brakes on the dirty line heading into turn 1, James Courtney in the #22 SP Tools Holden collided with fellow Walkinshaw racing drivers Garth Tander in the #2 SP Tools Holden, his teammate, and Lee Holdsworth in the #18 Fuchs/Walkinshaw/Beko Holden, also sending James Moffat in the #99 Toshiba/Nismo Nissan into the grass. As Moffat rejoined between turns 2 and 3, Ashley Walsh in the #4 Starlight Foundation/Repsol Mercedes spun Andre Heimgartner in the #111 Only Domains Ford, with Heimgartner narrowly avoiding the inside wall. suspension damage put Holdsworth out, however, Holdsworth's pit was before the start-finish line, so he didn't count for completing a lap and, since he was behind Tander at the time of the crash, he was relegated to last, with Tander 24^th.

A drive-through penalty for James Courtney left him 23^rd, while James Moffat, who was involved in the last 1, turn 1 crash, was spun out later in the race by Jason Bright in the #8 BOC Holden, leaving Moffat 22^nd. Fabian Coulthard in the #14 Freightliner Holden.

A/N: I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall of the Walkinshaw racing debrief on the night after this crash.

A/N2: Sorry for the horrible quality of the photo, but that was the only way I could put Holdsworth alone in the photo.

The bottom five

Lee Holdsworth	0 Laps	Crash
Garth Tander	0 Laps	Crash
James Courtney	19 Laps	Running
James Moffat	20 Laps	Running
Fabian Coulthard	20 Laps	Running

Driver's Championship

Scott McLaughlin: 4

Will Davison Ashley Walsh, Andre Heimgartner, David Wall, Garth Tander, Lee Holdsworth: 1

Team's Championship

Gary Rodgers Motorsports: 5

Erebus Motorsports: 2

Super Black Racing, Holden Racing Team, Charlie Schwerkolt Racing: 1

Manufacturer's Championship:

Volvo: 5

Mercedes, Holden: 2

Ford: 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.