Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: Electrical dramas dooms Caruso to last on the warm-up lap

Sunday 8 July 2018

Electrical dramas dooms Caruso to last on the warm-up lap

Original by Nissan_Nismo on Twitter, edited by me.

Michael Caruso picked up his 9^th last-place finish of his career when his #23 Drive.com.au/Auto Glym Nissan retired with Electrical issues without completing a single lap of the first race at Townsville. The finish came in Caruso’s 330^th start.

Michael Caruso is in his 11^th season in the Supercars season. He ran from 2008 to 2012 for Garry Rodgers Motorsport, then switched to Nissan Motorsports in the 2013 season. Caruso was 18th in Practice 1 but improved to 12th in Practice 2. However, the electrical dramas that would end his race before it began would strike in Qualifying.

As a result, he started the race in the rear but didn't even make it to the grid, stalling at turn 11 on the warm-up lap. The issue was revealed to be a major electrical issue that prevented him from completing a lap, leaving him in last.

The remainder of the bottom five was very fluid, as several drivers fell into the bottom 5, then drove out. When it was all said and done, rounding out the Bottom Five was Simona De Silvestro in the #78 Harvey Norman/LG Super UHD TV Nissan after a pit-lane penalty for not merging into the fast lane for 15 bays, when the limit is 2 bays, Tim Blanchard in the #21 Cooldrive Distribution Holden, Richie Stanaway in the #56 Rabble.club Ford after tire problems later in the race, though he did a little fan entertainment to blow off a little steam, as he drifted around a couple of corners. He stopped once he was told to cut it out by his engineer.

Todd Hazelwood in the #35 BigMate/Optus Ford was going to round out the final spot in the bottom five, however on the last lap James Courtney in the #22 Mobil 1/Boost Mobile Holden tangled with Jack LeBrocq in the #19 SS Signs Holden, sending LeBrocq into the wall at Turn 2, the crash dropping LeBrocq behind Hazelwood, who would finish 20th after Garth Tander in the #33 Wilson Security Holden was relegated to 21st after a post-race 15 second time penalty for 1st lap contact with Courtney.

The Bottom Five

Michael Caruso	0 Laps	Electrical
Simona De Silvestro	69 Laps	Running
Tim Blanchard	69 Laps	Running
Richie Stanaway	70 Laps	Running
Jack LeBrocq	70 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver’s Name	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Cameron Waters	2	3	4
2	Michael Caruso	2	2	2
3	James Golding	1	8	9
4	Richie Stanaway	1	6	9
5	Tim Blanchard	1	5	9
6	Todd Hazelwood	1	4	10
7	Simona De Silvestro	1	2	9
8	Jack LeBrocq	1	2	4
9	James Courtney	1	2	3
10T	Rick Kelly	1	1	2
10T	Garth Tander	1	1	2
10T	Macauley Jones	1	1	2
11T	Jamie Whincup	1	1	1
11T	Chaz Mostert	1	1	1
11T	Nick Percat	1	1	1
12	Lee Holdsworth	0	3	7
13	Andre Heimgartner	0	2	2
14	Will Davison	0	1	2
15T	Craig Lowndes	0	1	1
15T	Shane Van Gisbergen	0	1	1
15T	Michael Caruso	0	1	1
15T	David Reynolds	0	1	1
16	Anton De Pasquale	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Team Name	# Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Nissan Motorsports	4	5/4	9/4	16/4
2	Gary Rodgers Motorsport	2	1	9/2	10/2
3	Matt Stone Racing	1	1	4	9
4	Tickford Racing	4	3/4	9/4	11/4
5	Brad Jones Racing	4	3/4	6/4	10/4
6	Red Bull Holden Racing	2	1/2	2/2	2/2
7	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	1/2	2/2	3/2
8	Preston Hire Racing	1	0	3	6
9	23Red Racing	1	0	1	2
10	Craig Lowndes Racing	1	0	1	1
11	Tekno Autosports	1	0	0	3
12	Erebus Motorsports	2	0	0	½

Manufacturer’s Championship

Manufacturer	# Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Nissan	4	4/4	6/4	15/4
Ford	7	4/7	13/7	22/7
Holden	15	8/14	26/14	42/14

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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.