Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: November 2017

Sunday 26 November 2017

Transaxle failure leaves Coulthard last at Newcastle

Fabian Coulthard picked up his 10^th last-place finish of his career when his #12 Shell V-Power Ford retired with a Transaxle failure after 15 of the race’s 95 laps. The finish came in Coulthard’s 349^th start.

2017 Virgin Australia LASTCAR champion Taz Douglas started the race in the rear in the #3 Repair Management/Castrol, and held last until the end of lap 1 when Dale Wood in the #99 GB Galvanizing/ADVAN Holden pitted, dropping him to the rear, and fell further behind after a pit-lane drive through penalty for a pit-lane speed limit infringement.

After pitting and copping a pit-lane penalty for speeding in the pit-lane, Fabian Coulthard pulled into the garage on lap 16 due to a transaxle issue, and retired on lap 26.

Desperately trying to pass Scott McLaughlin in the #17 Shell V-Power Ford for 11th on the final lap, Craig Lowndes in the #888 Caltex Vortex Holden collides with McLaughlin, pitching Lowndes into the wall, ending his race and leaving him 25th. Rounding out the bottom five was James Courtney in the #22 Mobil 1 HSV Racing/Boost Mobile Holden pitted on lap 77 after contact with Tim Slade in the #14 Freightliner Holden, bending the steering on Courtney's car, dropping 4 laps in repairs, Cameron Waters in the #6 Monster Energy Ford, after making contact with the wall on lap 50 after contact with Garth Tander in the #33 Wilson Security Holden, losing 3 laps in repairs and Jason Bright in the #56 Mega Bulk Fuels Ford after a restart melee on lap damaged the front of his car, dropping 2 laps in repairs.

The Bottom Five

Fabian Coulthard	15 Laps	Crash
Craig Lowndes	93 Laps	Crash
James Courtney	91 Laps	Running
Cameron Waters	92 Laps	Running
Jason Bright	93 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Taz Douglas (CHAMPION)	3	9	9
2	Tim Slade	2	4	5
3	Todd Kelly	2	3	5
4	Will Davison	2	3	4
5T	Jack LeBrocq	2	2	2
5T	Fabian Coulthard	2	2	2
6	Alex Rullo	1	11	14
7	Dale Wood	1	4	8
8	Aaren Russell	1	5	7
9	Jason Bright	1	5	6
10	Nick Percat	1	3	5
11	James Moffat	1	3	6
12	Lee Holdsworth	1	3	4
13T	Tim Blanchard	1	2	2
13T	Matthew Brabham	1	2	2
14	Simona De Silvestro	1	1	8
15T	Michael Caruso	1	1	2
15T	Chaz Mostert	1	1	2
15T	Cameron Waters	1	1	2
16T	Rick Kelly	1	1	1
16T	Ashley Walsh	1	1	1
16T	Scott McLaighlin	1	1	1
16T	Alexandre Premat	1	1	1
17	James Courtney	0	5	6
18	Alex Davison	0	2	4
19T	Shane Van Gisbergen	0	2	3
19T	Craig Lowndes	0	2	3
20T	Karl Reindler	0	2	2
20T	David Reynolds	0	2	2
21T	Cameron McConville	0	1	1
21T	Garth Tander	0	1	1
21T	Richard Muscat	0	1	1
21T	Luke Youlden	0	1	1
21T	David Reynolds	0	1	1
22	David Russell	0	0	3
23T	Scott Pye	0	0	2
23T	Macauley Jones	0	0	2
23T	Jack Perkins	0	0	2
24T	Warren Luff	0	0	1
24T	James Golding	0	0	1
24T	Mark Winterbottom	0	0	1
24T	Dean Canto	0	0	1
24T	Chris Pither	0	0	1
24T	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	2
2	Shell V-Power Racing	4	1	1	1
3	Brad Jones Racing	6	5/6	10/6	15/6
4	Nissan Motorsports	9	7/9	8/9	19/9
5	Erebus Motorsports	4	3/4	2	15/4
6	Lucas Dumbrell Motorsports	10	6/10	29/10	35/10
7	Preston Hire Racing	2	1/2	5/2	3
8	Prodrive Racing Australia	8	1/4	5/8	10/8
9	Gary Rodgers Motorsports	5	1/5	4/5	8/5
10	Charlie Schwerkolt Racing	2	0	2	2
11	Walkinshaw Racing	4	0	5/4	5/2
12	Vortex Racing	2	0	1	2
13	Holden Red Bull Racing	4	0	1/2	¾

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	17/34	62/34	90/34
3	Ford	13	6/13	9/13	14/13

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.