Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: August 2019

Tuesday 27 August 2019

The 2020 Supercars Calendar. My thoughts.

OK, So in this article I'm going over the 2020 Supercars Calendar and giving my thoughts.

So, first off, I understand why the schedule was consolidated, but I'm still disappointed that Philip Island and Queensland Raceways were cut from the schedule. With the former, I understand why crowds are hard to get to and the cost to host the event.

As for the latter, Queensland Raceway has a lot of history, and I am disappointed about it not making the schedule.

I personally think the wall from turns 1 to 5 at Hidden Valley, as well as Turn 6 at Sandown, need to be made into SAFER Barriers as they have in NASCAR.

In the former case. it's so the risk of injury is greatly reduced and for the latter, the damage to the Tire bundles delays everything when someone crashes there. Safety is also a major aspect of the Sandown Turn 6 as well.

One thing I do find cool is that all of the SuperSprint races are now 200km per race, which means there will be more room for strategy and racing, which is great.

Also, Adelaide starting the season and Newcastle ending it, that just feels right.

Parc Ferme rules will apply to the Tyrepower Tasmania SuperSprint, PIRTEK Perth SuperNight, Truck Assist Winton SuperSprint, Sydney SuperNight, and the Penrite Oils Sandown 400, which, I'm not 100% sure about.
I've always been slightly suspect about the Parc Ferme rules, though I understand where they're coming from with it.

"Race for the Grid" is now no more, which I'm OK with, as the Tailem Bend round has the Shootout instead. Another interesting thing to note is that qualifying will be broken up into two parts for everywhere else that won't have the 3-part qualifying rules, the latter being at all SuperSprint and SuperNight rounds, except Bathurst.

One other call thing for the Supercars will be the likely abolition of the Used Tyre Bank, which is something that can be very frustrating.

Now we just need to know where the drivers are going to be in 2020. The first domino, James Courtney, has dropped, and now we'll see who else moves.

Sunday 25 August 2019

Wildcard Jack Smith finishes last at Tailem Bend

Original by Auto Action, edited by me.

Jack Smith picked up his 2^nd last-place finish of his career when his #4 SCT Logistics Holden finished under power, on the lead lap in the 2^nd race at Tailem Bend. The finish came in Smith’s 7^th start.

Jack Smith is currently running in Super 2 and is running as a Wildcard in the main game. Smith was he was 13th in Practice 1 but fell to 22nd in Practice 2. He rose to 18th in Practice 3, then fell to 23rd in practice 4, and held 23rd in Qualifying.

Macauley Jones in the #21 Cooldrive Distribution Holden started the race in the rear, but by at turn 2 Mark Winterbottom in the #18 Irwin Tools Holden was punted off the track by Tim Slade in the #15 Freightliner Holden after Slade was bumped by Cameron Waters in the #6 Monster Energy Ford, dropping Frosty to last. By lap 2 Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Holden had fallen to the rear.

After pit-stops on lap 5, Simona De Silvestro in the #78 Harvey Norman Nissan had fallen to the rear. She briefly jumped James Courtney in the #22 Mobil 1/Mega Bulk Fuels Holden on lap 6, but slid off the road on lap 7 and fell to last.

Andre Heimgartner in the #7 Plus Fitness Nissan copped a pit-lane drive through penalty for a Refuelling Coupling Breach during his pit-stop on lap 6, dropping him to last, Which he held until he passed Simona on lap 12.

After a turn 1 off Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Holden fell to the rear.

The second set of pit-stops start on lap 7, Cameron Waters in the #6 Monster Energy Ford fell to the rear. After his pitstop on lap 18, Smith fell to the rear, which Smith held until the end of the race.

The Bottom Five

Jack Smith	41 Laps	Running
Jack LeBrocq	41 Laps	Running
Richie Stanaway	41 Laps	Running
Mark Winterbottom	41 Laps	Running
Simona De Silvestro	41 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Driver	Car #	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Garry Jacobson	3	4	8	12
Macauley Jones	21	3	6	10
Jamie Whincup	88	3	3	3
Jack Smith	4	2	5	6
Richie Stanaway	33	2	4	7
Rick Kelly	15	2	3	5
James Courtney	22	2	3	3
James Golding	34	1	3	3
Todd Hazelwood	35	1	3	3
Scott Pye	2	1	2	4
Shane Van Gisbergen	97	1	2	3
Chaz Mostert	55	1	1	1
Jack LeBrocq	19	0	6	15
Simona De Silvestro	78	0	3	7
Cameron Waters	6	0	3	4
Tim Slade	14	0	2	3
Will Davison	23	0	2	3
Mark Winterbottom	18	0	1	4
Lee Holdsworth	5	0	1	2
Michael Caruso	33	0	1	2
Scott McLaughlin	17	0	1	1
Anton De Pasquale	99	0	1	1
Andre Heimgartner	7	0	1	1
Chris Pither	33	0	1	1
David Reynolds	9	0	0	2
Fabian Coulthard	12	0	0	1
Tim Blanchard	77	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Team	Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Nissan Motorsports	4	6/4	14/4	21/4
Red Bull Holden Racing Team	2	4/2	5/2	6/2
Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	3/2	5/2	6/2
Matt Stone Racing	1	1	3	3
Garry Rodgers Motorsports	4	3/4	7/3	12/3
Brad Jones Racing	5	3/5	9/5	16/5
Tickford Racing	4	1/4	4/4	7/4
Tekno Autosports	1	0	4	13
IRWIN Racing	1	0	1	3
DJR Team Penske	2	0	1/2	2/2
Erebus Racing	2	0	1	3/2

Manufacturer’s Championship

Manufacturer	Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Nissan	4	6/4	14/4	23/4
Holden	17	15/17	37/17	64/17
Ford	6	1/6	5/6	9/6

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.