Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: The Stewards Stuff up in Race 2. My thoughts

Sunday 15 September 2019

The Stewards Stuff up in Race 2. My thoughts

The Stewards have some serious explaining to do, although there was no deliberate attempt to stuff up the race, it did cause some major field problems, and screwed a number of drivers out of good results, including Jamie Whincup, Fabian Coulthard, Cameron Waters and Lee Holdsworth.

So, for those who don't know, the Safety Car picked up the wrong driver. Instead of picking up Scott McLaughlin in the #17 Shell V-Power Ford, it picked up Jamie Whincup in the #88 Red Bull Holden Holden. Or at least, they would have if Whincup hadn't gone past the Safety Car, and got penalised as a result.

CAMS was not sure what was going on with drivers pitting and staying out, so they froze the field.

Jamie Whincup was sounded like an absolute Mongoloid passing the Safety Car, for the 2nd time in his career after he did this at Bathurst several years ago. Then he compounded it by going too far with his implication that the Race Control stewards are drunk.

This is the 2nd time that somebody has been screwed by the Safety Car lights at Pukekohe, after Todd Hazelwood was penalised for passing the Safety Car last year.

The three Tickford drivers were screwed by the events, as Cameron Waters in the #6 Monster Energy Ford finished 14th and Lee Holdsworth in the #5 Bottle-O Ford finished 15th Jamie Whincup finished 16th. Fabian Coulthard in the #12 Shell V-Power Ford finished 12th.

Tickford was totally right to be furious about what happened, as it screwed two of their drivers out of a great result, including a potential podium for Lee Holdsworth.

This isn't the first time this has happened, although it is a rare thing to happen.

I feel bad for everyone affected by this, though I'm glad that Todd Hazelwood wound up 5th.

The biggest single issue here is the ratio of pit-lane transit time VS track length, which is by far the largest at Pukekohe, due to Pukekohe track lap being only a bit over 60 seconds per lap, to a 45 second transit time for the pit-lane. You don't see a 3/4th ratio anywhere else on the track. Every single standard of professionalism at Race Control should be honoured at every round, and, in regard to this, they didn't.

Now, to be fair, Tim and Dave did respond, and they claim they had done nothing wrong. Staying behind the Safety car, in their view, would allow them to sort everything out.

I will say that I can see where they're coming from, and that it would be easier to figure out the order. Alo of note, somehow Scott McLaughlin may have gotten past the Safety Car before the Safety Car had gone out on the track. If there was a way to make it a little easier, that should be implemented.

We'll have to wait and see for the results. Great job for Todd Hazelwood (5th), Simona De Silvestro (7th), Richie Stanaway (9th) and James Golding (10th), who all got top 10 results.

Just my thoughts about this.

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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.