Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: September 2017

Sunday 17 September 2017

Tim Slade takes LASTCAR lead after post-race exclusion at Sandown

Original by Auto Action, edited by me

Both Tim Slade and Ashley Walsh picked up their 8th last-place finish of their career's when their #75 Freightliner/Norm Beechey '70 Tribute was excluded post-race after Ashley Walsh failed to complete 54 of the race's 125 laps. The finish came in Slade's 265th start and Walsh's 43rd start. This is also Slade's 2nd last-place finish of the season, leaving him at the top of the 2017 Virgin Australia LASTCAR championship, 1 Bottom 3 appearance ahead of Will Davison.

After the massive crash between Jonathon Webb in the #19 Woodstock Bourbon Holden and Todd Hazelwood in the #4 Cooldrive Distribution/Norm Beechey '65 Tribute Holden in the first Sprint for the Grid, the latter’s car was withdrawn, a write-off. However, Tekno Autosports managed to repair car #19, but not in time to run Race 2, and therefore started the race in the rear. Off the start Jack LeBrocq in the #7 carsales.com.au/BRE Tribute Nissan stalled, dropping him to the rear. At turn 4, Ash Walsh in the #75 Freightliner/Norm Beechey '70 Tribute Holden was spun by Taz Douglas in the #3 Gemini/Repair Management Australia Retro Holden, and, at the same time, Jack Perkins in the #22 – Holden spun Dean Canto in the #5 – Ford, firstly dropping Canto to last then Walsh behind Canto.

Coming to Turn 6, however, disaster struck. For the second year in a row, a driver crashed there after a tire failure on lap 1. This time it was Taz Douglas in the #3 Gemini/Repair Management Australia Retro Holden, the crash triggering a 1-hour red flag, shortening the race to 125 laps from 161 and dropping Douglas and Aaren Russell to last. Post-race, however, Tim Slade and Ashley Walsh in the #75 Freightliner/Norm Beechey '70 Tribute was excluded post-race because Ashley Walsh completed too many laps during the race, inverting their lap count and dropping them to the rear.

Next to fall out was Alex Rullo and Alex Davison in the #62 Repair Management Australia/Castrol Holden. Firstly, during a pitstop on lap 16 car #62 was dropped before the right-rear tire was put on. Although the car went back on its jacks, the tire was not attached properly, and came off shortly after Alex Davison left the pit-lane. The combined time trying to get back and the subsequent penalty dropped then 4 laps down. They were also hit with a 30 Team Point penalty and a $5000 fine. Additional tire problems lost car #62 another 26 laps on lap 35, and the team eventually retired with a Vibration on lap 75, having completed just 43 laps.

Rounding out the bottom five was Nick Percat and Macauley Jones in the #8 Mongrel Boot/Adelaide Norm Beechey '67 Tribute Holden, after a Steering Rack failure caused a Vibration on lap 101 that cost them 16 laps and Scott Pye and Warren Luff in the #02 Mobil 1 HSV Racing/HRT '94 Tribute Holden, who lost 12 laps due to a Hung Throttle on lap 95.

The Bottom Five

Tim Slade/Ashley Walsh	-125 Laps	Excluded
Taz Douglas/Aaren Russell	0 Laps	Crash
Alex Rullo/Alex Davison	43 Laps	Vibration
Nick Percat/Macauley Jones	109 Laps	Running
Scott Pye/Warren Luff	113 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Tim Slade	2	4	4
2	Will Davison	2	3	3
3	Alex Rullo	1	10	12
4	Taz Douglas	1	6	6
5T	Dale Wood	1	4	7
5T	Jason Bright	1	4	5
6	Nick Percat	1	3	5
7T	Todd Kelly	1	2	4
7T	James Moffat	1	2	4
8t	Tim Blanchard	1	2	2
8T	Matthew Brabham	1	2	2
9	Simona De Silvestro	1	1	6
10	Michael Caruso	1	1	2
11T	Chaz Mostert	1	1	1
11T	Rick Kelly	1	1	1
11T	Jack LeBrocq	1	1	1
11T	Cameron Waters	1	1	1
11T	Ashley Walsh	1	1	1
12	James Courtney	0	2	4
13	Aaren Russell	0	2	3
14T	Shane Van Gisbergen	0	1	2
14T	Craig Lowndes	0	1	2
14T	Alex Davison	0	1	2
15T	Cameron McConville	0	1	1
15T	David Reynolds	0	1	1
15T	Garth Tander	0	1	1
16T	Scott Pye	0	0	2
16T	Macauley Jones	0	0	2
17T	Warren Luff	0	0	1
17T	Lee Holdsworth	0	0	1
17T	James Golding	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Driver	No. Drivers in Team	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Tekno Autosports	2	1	3/2	3/2
2	Brad Jones Racing	6	5/6	9/6	2
3	Lucas Dumbrell Motorsports	8	3/8	21/8	25/8
4	Nissan Motorsports	9	1/3	4/9	4/3
5	Erebus Motorsports	4	1/4	5/4	2
6	Prodrive Racing Australia	8	1/4	5/8	3/4
7	Gary Rodgers Motorsports	5	1/5	2/5	1
8	Vortex Racing	2	0	1/2	1
9	Walkinshaw Racing	4	0	1/2	7/4
10T	Holden Red Bull Racing	4	0	1/4	½
10T	Preston Hire Racing	2	0	0	½

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Driver	No. Drivers in Manufacturer	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Nissan	9	5/9	6/9	14/9
2	Holden	34	12/34	49/34	73/34
3	Ford	13	3/13	6/13	7/13

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.