Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: September 2018

Sunday 16 September 2018

Engine failure leaves Simona De Silvestro and Alex Rullo last at Sandown

Original by speedcafe, edited by me.

Simona De Silvestro picked up her 3rd last-place finish of her career, while Alex Rullo picked up his 2nd last-place finish of his career, when their #78 Harvey Norman/LG Super UHD TV Retro Nissan retired with Engine failure after 129 of the race's 161 laps. The finish came in De Silvestro's 52 race start, and Rullo's 23rd race start.

James Courtney in the #25 Mobil 1/Boost Mobile/Mark Skaife '08 Tribute Holden started the race in the rear after James Courtney crashed out of the 2nd Race for the Grid, however at turn 3 Chris Pither in the #33 Wilson Security/Garry Rogers '78 Tribute Holden was bumped into the fence by Dale Wood in the #21 Cooldrive Distribution/John Blanchard '93 Tribute Holden, who may have been bumped in turn, the hit dropping Pither to the rear.

On lap 15 Pither chased down and passed Jason Bright in the #18 Preston Hire/Fuchs Holden, dropping Bright to the rear.

The following lap pitstops began and Warren Luff in the #2 Mobil 1/Boost Mobile/Mark Skaife '08 Tribute Holden pitted, dropping to the rear. On lap 17, Pither pits, dropping back to the rear. Then Bryce Fulwood in the #35 Bigmate/Optus Ford pitted and fell to the rear on the following lap, then Jonothan Webb in the #19 Truck Assist Holden pitted and fell to the rear the lap after. Webb fell to the rear a lap later with a broken rear track bar, dropping 4 laps in repairs.

Just before Webb pulled into the garage Dean Fiore in the #23 Industrial Athelete/Auto Glym Holden collided with Jack Perkins in the #25 Mobil 1/Boost Mobile/Mark Skaife '08 Tribute Holden, breaking the suspension on Fiore's car and triggering the first Safety Car of the race. Fiore dropped to the rear on lap 26 and lost 25 laps in repairs.

Between laps 26 and 132, what would become the rest of the bottom five would be filled out. After Webb and LeBrocq’s #19 broke a rear track bar on lap 20, on lap 44 Macauley Jones in the #8 Snapes Holden pulled into the garage with a broken Gear Lever, losing 14 laps in repairs. Finally, Jason Bright in the #18 Preston Hire/Fuchs Holden spun off at turn 9 on lap 57, triggering the second safety car of the day, losing 4 laps. After a driver swap, Holdsworth would pull into the garage on lap 63 with heat shield issues, dropping 5 laps in repairs. Additional suspension problems put Bright back in the garage, dropping 7 more laps.

Just as Caruso was about to extend his lead even further when Simona De Silvestro in the #78 Harvey Norman/LG Super UHD TV Retro Nissan suffered engine failure on lap 132, dropping behind Hazelwood on lap 132, Le Brocq on lap 134, Holdsworth and Bright on lap 141, Percat on lap 148 and Caruso on lap 158.

The Bottom Five

Simona De Silvestro/Alex Rullo	129 Laps	Engine
Michael Caruso/Dean Fiore	134 Laps	Running
Nick Percat/Macauley Jones	142 Laps	Running
Lee Holdsworth/Jason Bright	145 Laps	Running
Jack LeBrocq/Jonathon Webb	156 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

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

Team’s Championship

Pos	Team Name	# Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Matt Stone Racing	2	1	3	8
2	Nissan Motorsports	8	8/8	16/8	25/8
3	Walkinshaw Andretti United	4	3/4	3/2	5/4
4	Gary Rodgers Motorsport	4	3/4	10/4	12/4
5	Kostecki Brothers Racing	2	1/2	3/2	4/2
6	Brad Jones Racing	8	3/8	9/8	15/8
7	Tekno Autosports	2	1/2	2/2	6/2
8	Tickford Racing	8	3/8	9/8	11/8
9	Red Bull Holden Racing	4	1/4	2/4	2/4
10	Preston Hire Racing	2	0	4/2	11/2
11	23Red Racing	2	0	2/2	4/2
12	Craig Lowndes Racing	2	0	1/2	1/2
13	Erebus Motorsports	4	0	1/4	3/4

Manufacturer’s Championship

Manufacturer	# Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Nissan	8	8/8	16/8	25/8
Holden	32ish	12/14	40/14	66/14
Ford	12ish	5/7	16/7	29/7

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.