Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: June 2016

Sunday 19 June 2016

Heavy crash leaves injured Holdsworth last at Darwin

Lee Holdsworth picked up his 13th last-place finish of his career when his #18 Preston Hire/Fuchs Holden was involved in a single-car crash that ended his race, and potentially season, on the opening lap of the second race at Darwin. The finish came in Holdsworth's 347th start.

Aaren Russell in the #4 Plus Fitness Holden started the race in the rear, however it was carnage in the first five turns of the first lap, when James Courtney in the #22 Mobil 1 Holden ran off the road at the exit of turn 1, and heading back onto the track he bumped Jason Bright in the #8 BOC Holden, bounding him into Lee Holdsworth in the #18 Preston Hire/Fuchs Holden, sending Holdsworth hard into the turn 2 wall. Holdsworth walked away in bad shape, but the day was done. Almost immediately afterwards there was contact between James Moffat in the #34 Wilson Security/Valvoline Volvo, Fabian Coulthard in the #12 Taubmans by PPG Ford and Chazz Mostert in the #55 Supercheap Auto Holden, sending Coulthard hard into the wall and Mostert flying across the road in turn 5, KO'ing Coulthard from the race and leaving Mostert 15 laps down.

During the pit-stop, Cameron Waters in the #6 Castrol/Monster Energy Ford had major contact with Garth Tander in the #2 Mobil 1 Holden, damaging the Suspension on Waters' car, dropping 6 laps. In a complete calamity for DJR Team Penske, Scott Pye in the #17 Shell Helix Ford was hit by David Reynolds in the #9 Penrite Oils between turns 5 and 6 on lap 8, with Pye sliding off the road and t-boning Michael Caruso in the #23 Nismo Nissan in turn 6, ending the race for Pye.

The Bottom Five

Lee Holdsworth	0 Laps	Crash
Fabian Coulthard	0 Laps	Crash
Scott Pye	7 Laps	Crash
Chazz Mostert	55 Laps	Running
Cameron Waters	64 Laps	Running

Driver's Championship

Nick Percat, Lee Holdsworth: 2

Tim Slade, Aaren Russell, Scott McLaughlin, Chris Pither, Scott Pye, Fabian Coulthard, Michael Caruso, Cameron Waters James Moffat: 1

Team's Championship

DJR Team Penske, Gary Rodgers Motorsport, Lucas Dumbrell Motorsports, Charlie Schwerkolt Racing: 2

BOC Racing, Erebus Motorsports, Super Black Racing, Pepsi Max Racing, Nissan Motorsports, 1

Manufacturer’s Championship

Holden: 6

Ford: 4

Volvo: 2

Nissan: 1

Different last-place finisher streak broken as Percat takes the lead at Darwin

Nick Percat picked up his 7^th last-place finish of his career when his #222 ABRO/Repair Management Australia Holden retired with Crash damage on the opening lap of the first race at Hidden Valley. The finish came in Percat’s 90^th start, and breaks the streak of different last-place finishers for 2016.

Aaren Russell started the race in the rear in the #4 Plus Fitness Holden, however at turn 4 Craig Lowndes in the #888 Vortex Holden was turned around by Rick Kelly in the #15 Sengeld Nissan, possibly having been bumped by Tim Slade in the #14 Freightliner Holden, briefly dropping Lowndes to the rear, however contact shortly afterwards an incident involving Nick Percat in the #222 ABRO/Repair Management Australia Holden and Dale Wood in the #96 GB Galvanizing/ADVAM left Percat with broken Suspension, knocking him out of the race.

Next to fall out was James Moffat in the #34 Wilson Security/Valvoline Volvo after Power Steering issues from contact in the first few laps, forcing him to the garage. Although the Power Steering issue was fixed, Moffat was so many laps down by the time he got back out that he wasn't classified as a finisher.

Rounding out the bottom five was Cameron Waters in the #6 Monster Energy Ford had contact with Fabian Coulthard in the #12 Taubman's Holden, damaging the Upright on car #6, forcing Waters to the garage, losing 9 laps, Garth Tander in the #2 Mobil 1 Holden lost a door in the first lap of the race, forcing him to the garage on lap 2, dropping 5 laps and Aaren Russell in the #4 Plus Fitness Holden.

The Bottom Five

Nick Percat	0 Laps	Crash
James Moffat	27 Laps	Power Steering
Cameron Waters	33 Laps	Running
Garth Tander	37 Laps	Running
Aaren Russell	42 Laps	Running

Driver's Championship

Nick Percat: 2

Tim Slade, Aaren Russell, Scott McLaughlin, Chris Pither, Scott Pye, Fabian Coulthard, Michael Caruso, Cameron Waters James Moffat, Lee Holdsworth: 1

Team's Championship

DJR Team Penske, Gary Rodgers Motorsport, Lucas Dumbrell Motorsports: 2

BOC Racing, Erebus Motorsports, Super Black Racing, Pepsi Max Racing, Nissan Motorsports, Charlie Schwerkolt Racing: 1

Manufacturer’s Championship

Holden: 5

Ford: 4

Volvo: 2

Nissan: 1

Hoping Dawrin last-placer Holdsworth a speedy recovery

Lee Holdsworth was seriously injured in a major crash at the Hidden Valley racetrack Sunday 19th June. Lee Holdsworth's #18 Preston Hire/Fuchs Holden was bumped by Jason Bright in the #8 BOC Holden, after his contact with James Courtney in the #22 Mobil 1 Holden, sending Lee Holdsworth hard into the concrete between turns 1 and 2. Lee Holdsworth has a broken pelvis and is likely out for the majority of the remainder of the season. He is currently tied for the lead in the 2016 Australian V8 LASTCAR championship with Nick Percat in the #222 ABRO/Repair Management Australia Holden.

Safety has always been a high priority of the V8 Supercar series, and as I think that it might be time it investigate the SAFER barrier for the barriers between turns 1 and 5 (on both sides) at Darwin so nobody gets as badly hurt as Holdsworth was. I know with the weak Australian Dollar there maybe cost issues, but honestly, you can't put a price on driver's safety. That part of the track has now been hit at least once by a driver racing there every year for the last four, and I think it's time that something more than Concrete was put there.

Hope for a speedy recovery Lee.

And the next Virgin Australia LASTCAR series articles will be out tomorrow.

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.