Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: 2018

Sunday 9 December 2018

Richie Stanaway out at Tickford. Why?

The news is official, Richie Stanaway is out at Tickford Racing. This wasn't unexpected, there were multiple reasons why this has happened, and in this article, I will attempt to explain why.

First though, the statement from Tickford.

"Tickford Racing and Richie Stanaway have elected to terminate their partnership, This decision is mutual, as team and driver believe it is best to part ways at this time.
Despite a challenging 2018 Supercars season, we think highly of Richie and wish him well in the next chapter of his career.
Tickford Racing’s 2019 plans continue to progress, and we look forward to announcing our driver line-up for the upcoming Supercars season in the coming weeks"

So why did Richie Stanaway lose his seat? Well, it's for several reasons, mostly around Stanway himself.

First: Ford
This is probably the main non-Stanaway reason why he's out. The team struggled, and this made it even harder for Stanaway to hit his Key Performance Indicators (He did have a Performance clause in his contract after all).

Secondly: Attitude
Let's face it, Stanaway. didn't quite have the attitude, and it showed a couple of times. The main one being his drifting action at Townsville, which was very silly, even if it did entertain the fans.
Also, it doesn't help when you and the engineer aren't communicating.

Thirdly: Team
Let's face it, Stanaway doesn't seem to get on too well with the team. He's bagged them in the past, including recently, and doesn't seem comfortable there.

Fourthly: Results
https://juniorgeneric.blogspot.com/2018/04/suspension-failure-leaves-stanaway-last.html

https://juniorgeneric.blogspot.com/2018/10/heavy-crash-leaves-stanaway-and-owen.html

25 Richie Stanaway 1214

Pos

Driver’s Name

Last

Bottom 3

Bottom 5

Richie Stanaway

When you finish just 13 points ahead of the driver who's driving for the slowest team in the field, for the factory team no less, something's wrong. Yes, Tickford did struggle this year, But Stanway especially struggled.

I think those are the four main reasons why Stanaway's out at Tickford. As to his replacement? Lee Holdsworth and Jack LeBrocq are apparently major candidates.

Sunday 25 November 2018

Courtney claim title after Coulthard last at Newcastle

Original by Supercars, edited by me.

Fabian Coulthard picked up his 12th last-place finish of his career when his #12 Shell V-Power Ford finished under power, 20 laps down in the final race of the 2018 season. Coulthard's last-place run is in his 380th start and gives the title to James Courtney.

Fabian Coulthard is in his 15th season, including 11th full-time. He's had a bit of a pechant for big crashes, including Bathurst 2010, New Zealand both last year and this year, as well as last race. Coulthard was 14th in opening practice but surged to 4th in Practice 2. Coulthard held 4th for Practice 3, then qualified 4th. After the top-ten shootout Coulthard lined up 10th.

Richie Stanaway in the #56 Rabble.club Ford started the race in the rear after crashing in qualifying, but by turn 1 Michael Caruso in the #23 Industrial Athelete/Auto Glym/BCNA Nissan had fallen to the rear. Not long afterwards James Golding in the #34 Wilson Security Holden ran over the back of Jack LeBrocq in the #19 - Holden, damaging the steering on car #34, sending Golding to the garage and down to last, dropping 7 laps in repairs.

Jamie Whincup in the #1 Red Bull Holden Racing Team Holden collided with Fabian Coulthard in the #12 Shell V-Power Ford at the final corner, heavily damaging the rear of Coulthard's car, sending Coulthard to the garage, losing 3 laps in repairs. Coulthard returned to the garage on lap 72, and fell to last on lap 80, dropping another 17 laps.

A late-race pitstop plan failed for Richie Stanaway in the #56 Rabble.club Ford, leaving him 23rd.

Simona De Silverstro in the #78 Harvey Norman/LG Super UHD TV/BCNA Nissan was spun into the wall on lap 78 at turn 9 by Tim Blanchard in the #21 Cooldrive Distribution Holden. Blanchard was penalised for the incident and would finish 22nd. De Silvestro would finish 24th.

The Bottom Five

Fabian Coulthard	75 Laps	Running
James Golding	87 Laps	Running
Simona De Silvestro	94 Laps	Running
Richie Stanaway	94 Laps	Running
Tim Blanchard	94 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver’s Name	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	James Courtney CHAMPION	4	5	6
2	Tim Blanchard	3	8	14
3	Michael Caruso	3	6	8
4	Todd Hazelwood	2	8	18
5	Richie Stanaway	2	7	13
6	Simona De Silvestro	2	4	12
7	Cameron Waters	2	3	5
8	Garth Tander	2	3	5
9	Fabian Coulthard	2	3	3
10	James Golding	1	10	12
11	Kurt Kostecki	1	3	4
12	Nick Percat	1	3	3
12	Jack LeBrocq	1	2	8
13T	Macauley Jones	1	2	4
13T	Steve Owen	1	2	2
14	Rick Kelly	1	1	4
15T	Jamie Whincup	1	1	1
15T	Chaz Mostert	1	1	1
15T	Alex Rullo	1	1	1
15T	Jack Perkins	1	1	1
16	Lee Holdsworth	0	4	10
17	Anton De Pasquale	0	4	6
18	Andre Heimgartner	0	4	4
19	Will Davison	0	2	3
20	Dean Fiore	0	2	3
21	Will Brown	0	2	2
22	Craig Lowndes	0	1	2
23T	Shane Van Gisbergen	0	1	1
23T	David Reynolds	0	1	1
23T	Mark Winterbottom	0	1	1
23T	Tim Slade	0	1	1
23T	Scott Pye	0	1	1
23T	Richard Muscat	0	1	1
24T	Jason Bright	0	0	1
24T	Jonathon Webb	0	0	1
24T	Will Brown	0	0	1
24T	Garry Jacobson	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Team Name	# Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Walkinshaw Andretti United CHAMPION	4	5/4	5/2	7/4
2	Matt Stone Racing	2	1	5	10
3	Gary Rodgers Motorsport	4	4/4	15/4	17/4
4	Nissan Motorsports	8	8/8	19/8	33/8
5	Tickford Racing	8	5/8	11/8	19/8
6	Kostecki Brothers Racing	2	1/2	3/2	4/2
7	Brad Jones Racing	8	4/8	10/8	17/8
8	Tekno Autosports	2	1/2	2/2	8/2
9	DJR Team Penske Racing	4	1/2	3/4	3/4
10	Red Bull Holden Racing	4	1/4	2/4	2/4
11	Preston Hire Racing	2	0	4/2	11/2
12	Erebus Motorsports	4	0	6/4	8/4
13	23Red Racing	2	0	2/2	4/2
14	Craig Lowndes Racing	2	0	1/2	½

Manufacturer’s Championship

Manufacturer	# Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Ford	12ish	10/12	14/12	24/12
Nissan	8	6/8	16/8	30/8
Holden	32ish	17/32	60/32	96/32

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.