Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: October 2017

Sunday 22 October 2017

Taz Douglas takes LASTCAR lead after collision leaves him last at Surfer's Paradise

Screenshotted by me, original by darcy.f1

Taz Douglas picked up his 3rd last-place finish of his career, while Aaren Russel picked up his 2nd last-place finish of his career, when their #3 Plus Fitness Holden was involved in 2 car crash that ended their run after 8 of the race's 102 laps. The finish came in Douglas' 58th start and Aaren Russell's 26th start. With this last place finish Taz Douglas takes the lead in the 2017 Virgin Australia LASTCAR championship.

David Russell started the race in the rear in the #78 Harvey Norman/LG Super UHD TV Holden, however by turn 11 Alex Davison in the #62 Repair Management/Castrol Holden had fallen to the rear. On lap 2 James Golding in the #33 Wilson Security Holden was spun out by Taz Douglas in the #3 Plus Fitness Holden, dropping Golding to the rear, also dealing significant damage to the front of Douglas' car. Douglas dropped to the rear by the end of lap 3, and subsequently pulled into the garage. They returned to the track on lap 52, 45 laps down, then retired on lap 55, having done just 8 laps.

Following Douglas and Aaren Russell out Was David Reynolds and Luke Youlden in the #9 Penrite Australian Made and Owned Holden who crashed heavily off the kerbs at turn 10 on lap 15, breaking the right-rear Suspension and sending car #9 to the garage and out of the race. Following Reynolds and Youden out were David Russell in the #78 Harvey Norman/LG Super UHD TV Nissan and Alex Davison in the #62 Repair Management/Castrol Holden, after the former was spun into the wall at turn 4 by James Golding in the #34 - Holden. Avoiding David, Golding collected and pitched Alex Davison into the turn 5 wall, doing severe damage to both cars and sending both to the garage. Car #78 lost 15 laps in repairs, and while Rullo briefly got out but the car was too damaged, and they couldn't continue past turn 4. David Russell and Simona De Silvestro finished 22^nd, the final spot in the bottom five.

Rounding out the bottom five, splitting the #78 and the #62 was Tim Slade and Andre Heimgartner in the #14 Freightliner Holden, after contact between Heimgartner and Dean Fiore in the #23 Auto Glym/Nissan Genuine Parts Nissan on lap 4, sending car #14 backwards into the turn 11 tire barrier and losing 17 laps in the garage for repairs.

The Bottom Five

Taz Douglas/Aaren Russell	8 Laps	Crash
David Reynolds/Luke Youlden	15 Laps	Crash
Alex Rullo/Alex Davison	20 Laps	Crash
Tim Slade/Andre Heimgartner	85 Laps	Running
Simona De Silvestro/David Russell	85 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Taz Douglas	2	8	8
2	Tim Slade	2	4	5
3	Todd Kelly	2	3	5
4	Will Davison	2	3	3
5	Jack LeBrocq	2	2	2
6	Alex Rullo	1	11	14
7	Dale Wood	1	4	8
8	Aaren Russell	1	4	6
9T	Jason Bright	1	4	5
9T	Nick Percat	1	3	5
10T	James Moffat	1	3	5
10T	Tim Blanchard	1	2	2
11	Matthew Brabham	1	2	2
12	Simona De Silvestro	1	1	8
13T	Michael Caruso	1	1	2
13T	Chaz Mostert	1	1	1
13T	Rick Kelly	1	1	1
13T	Cameron Waters	1	1	1
13T	Ashley Walsh	1	1	1
13T	Scott McLaighlin	1	1	1
14	Alexandre Premat	1	1	1
15T	James Courtney	0	2	4
15T	Alex Davison	0	2	4
16	Lee Holdsworth	0	2	3
17	Karl Reindler	0	2	2
18T	Shane Van Gisbergen	0	1	2
18T	Craig Lowndes	0	1	2
19T	Cameron McConville	0	1	1
19T	David Reynolds	0	1	1
19T	Garth Tander	0	1	1
19T	Richard Muscat	0	1	1
19T	Luke Youlden	0	1	1
19T	David Reynolds	0	1	1
20	David Russell	0	0	3
21T	Scott Pye	0	0	2
21T	Macauley Jones	0	0	2
22T	Warren Luff	0	0	1
22T	James Golding	0	0	1
22T	Mark Winterbottom	0	0	1
22T	Dean Canto	0	0	1
22T	Chris Pither	0	0	1
22T	Andre Heimgartner	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	14/6
3	Nissan Motorsports	9	7/9	8/9	19/9
4	Erebus Motorsports	4	3/4	7/4	7/2
5	Shell V-Power Racing	4	½	½	½
6	Lucas Dumbrell Motorsports	8	5/8	27/8	31/8
7	Prodrive Racing Australia	8	1/4	5/8	1
8	Gary Rodgers Motorsports	5	1/5	4/5	7/5
9	Charlie Schwerkolt Racing	2	0	2	2
10	Vortex Racing	2	0	1/2	1
11	Walkinshaw Racing	4	0	1/2	7/4
12	Holden Red Bull Racing	4	0	1/4	½
13	Preston Hire Racing	2	0	0	½

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Driver	No. Drivers in Manufacturer	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Nissan	9	7/9	8/9	19/9
2	Holden	34	16/34	57/34	83/34
3	Ford	13	5/13	8/13	11/13`

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.