Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: Hard crash leaves Caruso leading 2018 championship at Townsville

Sunday 8 July 2018

Hard crash leaves Caruso leading 2018 championship at Townsville

Original screenshotted from Supercars, edited by me.

Michael Caruso picked up his 10th last-place finish of his career when his #23 Drive.com.au/Auto Glym Nissan was involved in a violent, two-car crash that ended his race after 60 of the race's 70 laps. The finish came in Caruso's 331st start.

Michael Caruso is in his 11th 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. Caruso qualified 11th for the second race, 0.0015 behind 10th place Nick Percat, the last space in the Top 10 shootout.

Anton De Pasquale in the #99 Penrite Holden started the race in the rear after crashing early in Qualifying, however, at turn 1 Michael Caruso in the #23 Drive.com.au/Auto Glym Nissan was spun by Simona De Silvestro in the #78 Harvey Norman/LG Super UHD TV Nissan, dropping him to the rear. By lap 3 Tim Blanchard in the #21 Cooldrive Distribution Holden.

Blanchard held last until lap 12 when Scott McLaughlin in the #17 Shell V-Power Ford pitted, dropping him to the rear. Scott Pye in the #2 Mobil 1/Boost Mobile Holden then pitted and dropped to the rear on lap 15. Todd Hazelwood in the #35 BigMate/Optus Ford fell to the rear after pitting on lap 18. Anton De Pasquale in the #99 Penrite Holden fell to the rear on lap 21 in his pitstop. Richie Stanaway in the #56 Rabble.club Ford pitted on lap 23, dropping him to last. Simona De Silvestro was penalised 15 seconds for contact with Caruso, which was taken at her first pit-stop on lap 24, dropping her to last.

Hazelwood pitted for the second time on lap 37. returning to last, followed by De Silvestro on lap 45. Blanchard pitted on lap 46, dropping to last, then fell further behind due to a Mechanical Black Flag for loose bodywork.

Blanchard held last until lap 60 when catastrophe struck for Michael Caruso in the #23 Drive.com.au/Auto Glym Nissan. Battling with Anton De Pasquale in the #99 Erebus Holden, Caruso tried to block Anton, but Anton ran into the back of Caruso, sending hard into the tire barrier by turn 11, triggering the only safety car of the day, plunging Caruso to last.

The only other retirement from the race was Will Davison in the #230 Milwaukee Tools/OPS Gateway Holden had contact with James Golding in the #34 Wilson Security Holden at Turn 6 on lap 68, sending Davison hard into the tires and out of the race.

Tim Blanchard would eventually finish 24^th. Rounding out the bottom five was Todd Hazelwood in the #35 BigMate/Optus Ford dealing with the fallout from a shoulder injury sustained on lap 1 in yesterday's race, as well as dehydration and Simona De Silvestro in the #78 Harvey Norman/LG Super UHD TV Nissan.

The Bottom Five

Michael Caruso	60 Laps	Crash
Will Davison	67 Laps	Crash
Tim Blanchard	68 Laps	Running
Todd Hazelwood	69 Laps	Running
Simona De Silvestro	69 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver’s Name	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Michael Caruso	3	3	3
2	Cameron Waters	2	3	4
3	James Golding	1	8	9
4	Tim Blanchard	1	6	10
5	Richie Stanaway	1	6	9
6	Todd Hazelwood	1	4	11
7	Simona De Silvestro	1	2	10
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	Will Davison	0	2	3
14	Andre Heimgartner	0	2	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	6/4	10/4	18/4
2	Gary Rodgers Motorsport	2	1	9/2	10/2
3	Matt Stone Racing	1	1	4	11
4	Tickford Racing	4	3/4	9/4	11/4
5T	Brad Jones Racing	4	3/4	7/4	11/4
5T	Red Bull Holden Racing	2	1/2	2/2	2/2
7T	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	1/2	2/2	3/2
7T	Preston Hire Racing	1	0	3	6
8	23Red Racing	1	0	2	4
9	Craig Lowndes Racing	1	0	1	1
10	Tekno Autosports	1	0	0	3
11	Erebus Motorsports	2	0	0	½

Manufacturer’s Championship

Manufacturer	# Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Nissan	4	6/4	10/4	18/4
Ford	7	4/7	13/7	23/7
Holden	15	8/14	28/14	44/14

No comments:

Post a Comment

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.