Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: April 2017

Sunday 23 April 2017

Spin and Rocks leave Davison last at Phillip Island

Will Davison picked up his 16th last-place finish of his career when his #19 Woodstock Holden retired with an Oil Pressure problem without completing a single lap of the sixth race at Phillip Island. The finish came in Davison's 366th race start.

Taz Douglas started the race in the rear in the #3 Repair Management Australia Holden, however almost immediately Alex Rullo in the #62 Repair Management Australia Holden fell to last. At turn 2, more chaos ensued, though not as bad as in Race 1.

At turn 2 Nick Percat in the #8 BOC Holden made contact with Will Davison in the #19 Woodstock Holden, sending him into Jason Bright in the #56 MEGA Bulk Fuels Ford and Scott Pye in the #2 Mobil 1 HSV Racing Holden casting all three off the road. Davison got bogged in the wet grass, triggering the first safety car of the race. Shortly after Davison was retrieved, he stalled near the entrance to pit-lane, requiring the combined crew of Davison and Craig Lowndes in the #888 Caltex Vortex Holden to push Davison to the garage, leaving him last.

Troubles early in the race eventually forced Bright to the garage on lap 5, losing 7 laps to repair a Broken Front Bar and Front Bar Mount. Rounding out the Bottom Five was Taz Douglas in the #3 Repair Management Australia Holden, Craig Lowndes in the #888 Caltex Vortex Holden after a late-race tire failure and Alex Rullo in the #62 Repair Management Australia Holden.

The Bottom Five

Will Davison	0 Laps	Oil Pressure
Jason Bright	50 Laps	Running
Taz Douglas	55 Laps	Running
Craig Lowndes	56 Laps	Running
Alex Rullo	57 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Will Davison	2	3	3
2	Taz Douglas	1	4	4
3T	Dale Wood	1	2	2
3T	Nick Percat	1	2	2
4	Jason Bright	1	2	2
5	Alex Rullo	0	4	4
6T	David Reynolds	0	1	1
6T	Tim Blanchard	0	1	1
7	Todd Kelly	0	0	2
8T	Simona De Silvestro	0	0	1
8T	Michael Caruso	0	0	1
8T	James Courtney	0	0	1
8T	Scott Pye	0	0	1
8T	James Moffat	0	0	1
8T	Lee Holdsworth	0	0	1
8T	Craig Lowndes	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Driver	No. Drivers in Team	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Tekno Autosports	1	2	3	3
2	Lucas Dumbrell Motorsports	2	1/2	11/2	7
3	Erebus Motorsports	2	1/2	1	1
4	Brad Jones Racing	3	1/3	2	2
5	Prodrive Racing Australia	4	1/4	1/2	1/2
6	Nissan Motorsports	4	0	0	1
7	Walkinshaw Racing	2	0	0	1
8	Preston Hire Racing	1`	0	0	1
9	Vortex Racing	1	0	0	1
10	Gary Rodgers Motorsports	2	0	0	½

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Driver	No. Drivers in Manufacturer	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Holden	16	5/16	15/16	23/16
2	Ford	6	1/6	2/6	2/6
3	Nissan	4	0	¼	2

Suspension Failure leaves Wood last at Phillip Island

Screenshot from Erebus Motorsport Twitter, Edited by Me

Dale Wood picked up his 4th last-place finish of his career when his #99 GB Galvanizing/ADVAN Holden retired with Suspension failure after 7 of the race's 51 laps. The finish came in Wood's 134th start.

Taz Douglas in the Unsponsored #3 Lucas Dumbrell Motorsports Holden started the race in the rear, but immediately Simona De Silvestro in the #78 Harvey Norman Nissan fell to the rear. However, between turns 1 and 2 it was chaos.

Todd Kelly in the #7 Carsales.com/Bikesales.com.au Nissan, David Reynolds in the #9 Penrite Enviro Box Holden, James Courtney in the #22 Mobil 1 HSV Racing/Boost Mobile Holden and Lee Holdsworth in the #18 Preston Hire/Fuchs Holden ran off the road at turn 1. Todd Kelly hit the marshal stand tire barrier, while Reynolds, Courtney and Holdsworth returned to the track at turn 2 and hit Rick Kelly in the #15 Sengled/Castrol Nissan (Reynolds), Craig Lowndes in the #888 Caltex Vortex Holden and Garth Tander in the #33 Wilson Security Holden (Courtney) and Nick Percat in the #8 Hare & Forbes/Adelaide Holden (Holdsworth). After the carnage, Lowndes was left at the rear.

By the end of lap 2, however, Lowndes had passed both Holdsworth and Todd Kelly, with the latter two pitting at the end of laps 2 and 1 respectively, and with Holdsworth in the garage for 8 laps, dropping him to last at the end of lap 3. Holdsworth held last until lap 9 when Dale Wood in the #99 GB Galvanizing/ADVAN Holden pitted with a left-front tire puncture and the wheel positioned strangely. The damage was revealed to be suspension damage from hitting another car, and Wood fell to last, retiring shortly afterwards.

Reynolds was the next car to retire, retiring with Gearbox failure on lap 10. Suspension issues for Percat on lap 12, along with a tire failure, left Percat teetering on the edge of classification, losing 13 laps in repairs, however a lap 49 collision between Percat and Alex Rullo in the #62 Repair Management Australia Holden at turn 4 left both Percat and Rullo filling the next two spots on the bottom five. Holdsworth rounded out the bottom five.

The Bottom Five

Dale Wood	7 Laps	Suspension
David Reynolds	10 Laps	Gearbox
Nick Percat	35 Laps	Crash
Alex Rullo	50 Laps	Crash
Lee Holdsworth	43 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Taz Douglas	1	3	3
2T	Will Davison	1	2	2
2T	Dale Wood	1	2	2
2T	Nick Percat	1	2	2
3	Jason Bright	1	1	1
4	Alex Rullo	0	3	3
5T	David Reynolds	0	1	1
5T	Tim Blanchard	0	1	1
6	Todd Kelly	0	0	2
7T	Simona De Silvestro	0	0	1
7T	Michael Caruso	0	0	1
7T	James Courtney	0	0	1
7T	Scott Pye	0	0	1
7T	James Moffat	0	0	1
7T	Lee Holdsworth	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Driver	No. Drivers in Team	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Tekno Autosports	1	1	2	2
2	Lucas Dumbrell Motorsports	2	1/2	5	6
3	Erebus Motorsports	2	1/2	1	1
4	Brad Jones Racing	3	1/3	2	2
5	Prodrive Racing Australia	4	1/4	1/4	1/4
6	Nissan Motorsports	4	0	0	1
7	Walkinshaw Racing	2	0	0	1
8	Preston Hire Racing	1	0	0	1
9	Gary Rodgers Motorsports	2	0	0	½

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Driver	No. Drivers in Manufacturer	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Holden	16	4/16	13/16	19/16
2	Ford	6	1/6	1/6	1/6
3	Nissan	4	0	¼	2

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.