Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: Courtney takes LASTCAR lead after Suspension failure at Sydney Motorsports Park

Saturday 4 August 2018

Courtney takes LASTCAR lead after Suspension failure at Sydney Motorsports Park

Original by Supercars, screenshot and edit by me.

James Courtney picked up his 15th last-place finish of his career when his #25 Mobil 1 Boost Mobile Holden retired with Suspension failure after 52 of the race's 77 laps. The finish came in Courtney's 393rd start, and sees him take the lead in the 2018 Virgin Australia LASTCAR championship.

Todd Hazelwood in the #35 BigMate Ford started the race in the rear, however immediately Simona De Silvestro in the #78 Harvey Norman/LG Super UHD TV Nissan fell to the rear. Shortly afterwards Tim Blanchard in the #21 Cooldrive Distribution Holden Holden fell to the rear. Hazelwood returned to last on lap 5.

After lap 3 contact with Garth Tander in the #33 Wilson Security Holden, Andre Heimgartner in the #7 Plus Fitness Nissan dropped through the field, eventually falling to last on lap 7 as both him and Hazelwood lost touch with Blanchard. Heimgartner then pitted on lap 12 and went to the garage shortly afterwards with steering damage, dropping 8 laps in repairs.

Catastrophe strikes for James Courtney in the #25 Mobil 1/Boost Mobile Holden, his car suffered a Suspension failure on lap 52, sending him to the garage and out of the race, dropping to last on lap 60. Just two laps later, his teammate Scott Pye in the #2 Mobil 1/Boost Mobile Holden suffered a rim failure. Then, Pye headed to the garage with a Suspension failure a few laps later, and he kept struggling with Suspension issues during the rest of the race, though Pye managed to finish, 14 laps down.

The only Safety Car of the race came on lap 59, when Todd Hazelwood in the #35 BigMate Ford had a wild off at Turn 1 after losing his rear wing on the front straight. Hazelwood would lose 3 laps in repairs. Rounding out the bottom five was Michael Caruso, who shortly after the restart had a big incident with Anton De Pasquale between in the #99 Penrite Holden, with Caruso carted off the road between Turns 5 and 6. The damage left Caruso also 3 laps down.

The Bottom Five

James Courtney	52 Laps	Suspension
Scott Pye	63 Laps	Running
Andre Heimgartner	68 Laps	Running
Todd Hazelwood	74 Laps	Running
Michael Caruso	74 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver’s Name	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	James Courtney	3	4	5
2	Michael Caruso	3	3	4
3	Todd Hazelwood	2	5	14
4	Cameron Waters	2	3	4
5	James Golding	1	8	9
6	Tim Blanchard	1	6	11
7	Richie Stanaway	1	6	9
8	Simona De Silvestro	1	2	10
9	Jack LeBrocq	1	2	4
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	8
13	Andre Heimgartner	0	3	3
14	Will Davison	0	2	3
15T	Anton De Pasquale	0	1	2
15T	Kurt Kostecki	0	1	2
16T	Craig Lowndes	0	1	1
16T	Shane Van Gisbergen	0	1	1
16T	Michael Caruso	0	1	1
16T	David Reynolds	0	1	1
16T	Mark Winterbottom	0	1	1
16T	Tim Slade	0	1	1
16T	Scott Pye	0	1	1

Team’s Championship

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

Manufacturer’s Championship

Manufacturer	# Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Nissan	4	6/4	11/4	19/4
Ford	7	5/7	15/7	27/7
Holden	15	10/14	34/14	53/14

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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.