Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: March 2019

Tuesday 26 March 2019

Hypocritical Ford fans whinge about Holden Parity.test

So, the Supercars Commission is set to review and rule on the findings from a recent centre-of-gravity test.

So, this year, the parity tests between Ford and Holden have come on quickly after the Mustang dominated the start of the 2019 season.

And a lot of ford fans are absolutely, hypocritically, flipping out about this, claiming that Roland Dane has paid off V888 Redbullshit Cars to nerf the Mustang because he's not winning everything.

This is absolutely hypocritical of these ford fans, as the shoe was on the other foot just 12 months ago. In fact, Ryan Story of DJR Team Penske complained about the Composite Roof just 12 months ago. In fact, here are Story's comments about Center-of-Gravity.

"We've become aware of it over the course of the past week and it's something you need to address. At the end of the day, centre of gravity is king in any racecar so it's something we need to address and do so as quickly as we can to ensure that we address a modest imbalance. "Just with the release of panel weights, it gives you an indication pretty quickly. I think a precedent's been set with some of these panels, and if we're going down the path of ensuring that we have parity, we just need to ensure that what's good for the goose is good for the gander. And the series knows that I think we'll see that we have the ability to fast-track and ensure that we're all on the same page and do so as quickly as we can"

That was what Ryan Story had to say.

In fact, Ford was the ones calling for Re-Homologation, not Nissan.

Also, this issue came up last year after Adelaide, the 1st round of the series. It's taken until Albert Park, the 2nd round of the series, for this to come up this year. So it actually came up EARLIER last-year when Ford, and ford fans, made a massive stink about parity last-year.

Also, this will come up again in 2020, the ford fans will start whining again when the Chevrolet Camaro comes out, it'll happen again, and Ford Fans will forget from a year ago when they attacked Holden, Supercars, Roland Dane and everybody in the Holden Racing Team for getting parity checks.

But hey, getting a lot of Ford Fans to be consistent on their outrage is like asking Jason Bargwanna to apologise for any of his actions on the track over the years.

It's amazingly hypocritical how one day these "fans" are whining about "V888 RedBullshit cars are only doing this because RBHRT isn't winning" when the Mustang is winning, yet when the ZB was winning I didn't hear anything about how "VPenske cars only doing this because Penske isn't winning"

It's standard procedure, in the pursuit of parity, in the Supercars series. It seems a lot of ford fans have a rather short memory and seem to be blinded by their hatred for the Red Bull Holden Racing Team.

So, just a few thoughts on that, it's amazing how hypocritical a lot of Ford Fans are being, but then again, that's not surprising.

Thursday 21 March 2019

TIME-CERTAIN FINISHES ENDED BY SUPERCARS! FINALLY!

So, the Supercars have announced that the Time Certain race finishes will be removed from now on.

This is for the best, finally, the fans have been listened to. This is something that the fans, including me, have been really wanting to have happened for a long time. I cannot mention how many times I’ve been frustrated by the race being shortened for whatever reason, whether it is rain, crashes or track problems, the race was shortened.

It happens far too often, and I’m glad it’s finally gone. Now the only time that a race is shortened is if it goes way over time and lighting on the track becomes a problem.

It has, of course, come at a bit of a price. The free-to-air races will have to be transferred to the sub-channels of Channel 10 of they go significantly over time. This won’t affect Fox Sports, as they don’t have scheduling commitments.

And now we move onto the other piece of news for the changes to these races. And this is another thing that has made this announcement even better.

And that is, the announcement that the start time of the race may be moved if the weather conditions mean that the race may not be completed, just like in the 2^nd race of the Gold Coast 600 last year, which was abandoned due to monsoon conditions, and as a result no winner and no last-place report, which is only a good thing, as moving the start time of the race so we can run the whole race is very important.

So this is just a short update about some awesome rule changes that have been made, it’s great that finally, Supercars is listening to us.

Saturday 16 March 2019

Another crash leaves Macauley Jones last at Albert Park

Original by Supercars, edited by me.

Macauley Jones picked up his 2nd last-place finish of his career when his #21 Cooldrive Distribution was involved in a 2-car crash that ended his race after 2 of the race's shortened 11 laps. The finish came in Jones' 28th start.

Jones has been in the endurance races for several years, but this is his 1st full-time season. He was 23rd in Practice 1 and stayed 23rd in Practice 2. He improves slightly to 22nd and effectively lined up 21st with Stanaway's penalty.

Richie Stanaway in the #33 Boost Mobile Holden started the race in the pit-lane in last as part of his penalty for deliberately trying to crash Lee Holdsworth, however, Jack LeBrocq in the #19 Truck Assist Holden quickly fell to the rear after contact with James Golding in the #34 Boost Mobile Holden at turn 1. LeBrocq would struggle throughout the race and would finish 23^rd after a late-race tire issue.

On lap 4 Macauley Jones in the #21 Cooldrive Holden tangled with Garry Jacobson in the #3 Rabble.club Nissan, sending Jones hard into the wall, out of the race and down to last.

On lap 2 Shane Van Gisbergen in the #97 Red Bull Holden Holden, after short-cutting turn 12, locked up and hit Fabian Coulthard in the #12 Shell V-Power Ford, sending Coulthard off the road. The 15 second-post race penalty for Van Gisbergen left him 22nd.

Rounding out the bottom 5 was Simona De Silvestro in the #78 Harvey Norman Nissan and Richie Stanaway in the #33 Boost Mobile Holden.

The Bottom Five

Macualey Jones	3 Laps	Crash
Jack LeBrocq	11 Laps	Running
Shane Van Gisbergen	11 Laps	Running
Simona De Silvestro	11 Laps	Running
Richie Stanaway	11 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Driver	Car #	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Macauley Jones	21	1	3	4
Garry Jacobson	3	1	2	4
Rick Kelly	15	1	2	3
Shane Van Gisbergen	97	1	2	3
Richie Stanaway	33	1	1	1
Scott Pye	2	1	1	1
Cameron Waters	6	0	2	2
Jack LeBrocq	19	0	1	4
James Golding	34	0	1	1
Scott McLaughlin	17	0	1	1
Lee Holdsworth	5	0	1	1
Todd Hazelwood	35	0	1	1
Simona De Silvestro	12	0	0	2
Fabian Coulthard	78	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Team	# Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Nissan Motorsports	4	1/2	1	8/4
Garry Rodgers Motorsports	2	1/2	1	7/4
Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	½	½	½
Red Bull Holden Racing Team	2	½	1	3/2
Matt Stone Racing	1	0	1	1
Tickford Racing	4	0	3/4	¾
Brad Jones Racing	3	1/3	1	4/3
Tekno Autosports	1	0	1	4
DJR Team Penske	2	0	1/2	1

Manufacturer’s Championship

Manufacturer	# Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Nissan	4	2/4	4/4	7/4
Holden	14	3/14	10/14	17/14
Ford	6	1/8	2/6	3/6

Post-Race Exclusion leaves Stanaway last at Albert Park

Original by Supercars, edited by me.

Richie Stanaway picked up his 4th last-place finish of his career when his #33 Boost Mobile Holden was disqualified from the 3rd race at Albert Park after -25 of the race's 25 laps. The finish came in Stanaway's 43rd start. He was also ordered to start the 4th race from last and in the pit-lane (I reckon he should start the race in the wall).

Stanaway is in his 2nd season of Supercars action, switching to Garry Rodgers Motorsport after he was dropped from Tickford racing. He was 11th in Practice 1 but plummeted to 18th in Practice 2. He recovered slightly to qualify 17th.

Although Cameron Waters in the #6 Monster Energy Ford and Scott McLaughlin in the #17 Bottle-O Ford failed to even make it to the grid, Richie Stanaway in the #33 Boost Mobile Holden was disqualified for dangerous driving involving Lee Holdsworth in the #18 Bottle-O Ford, including Stanaway trying to put Holdworth in the wall sending him to last.

Disaster struck for the 2nd race this round for Shane Van Gisbergen in the #97 Red Bull/Holden Holden, losing a wheel after his pit-stop, triggering the only safety car of the race. Van Gisbergen would finish 2 laps down. Rounding out the bottom five was Macauley Jones in the #21 Cooldrive Distribution Holden.

The Bottom Five

Richie Stanaway	-25 Laps	Disqualified
Cameron Waters	0 Laps	Did Not Start
Scott McLaughlin	0 Laps	Did Not Start
Shane Van Gisbergen	23 Laps	Running
Macauley Jones	25 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Driver	Car #	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Garry Jacobson	3	1	2	4
Rick Kelly	15	1	2	2
Shane Van Gisbergen	97	1	1	2
Richie Stanaway	33	1	1	1
Scott Pye	2	1	1	1
Macauley Jones	21	0	2	3
Cameron Waters	6	0	2	2
Scott McLaughlin	17	0	1	1
Lee Holdsworth	5	0	1	1
Todd Hazelwood	35	0	1	1
James Golding	34	0	1	1
Jack LeBrocq	19	0	0	3
Fabian Coulthard	12	0	0	1
Simona De Silvestro	78	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Team	# Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Nissan Motorsports	4	1/2	1	7/4
Garry Rodgers Motorsports	2	1/2	1	1
Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	½	½	½
Red Bull Holden Racing Team	2	½	½	1
Matt Stone Racing	1	0	1	1
Tickford Racing	4	0	3/4	3/4
Brad Jones Racing	3	0	2/3	1
DJR Team Penske	2	0	1/2	1
Tekno Autosports	1	0	0	3

Manufacturer’s Championship

Manufacturer	# Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Nissan	4	2/4	4/4	7/4
Holden	14	2/14	7/14	12/14
Ford	6	1/8	2/6	3/6

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.