Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: October 2019

Sunday 27 October 2019

First lap Shunt leaves Golding and Muscat last at the Gold Coast

Original by Supercars, edited by me.

James Golding picked up his 2nd last-place finish of his career, while Richard Muscat picked up his 1st last-place finish of his career, when their #34 Boost Mobile Holden was involved in a multi-car crash that ended their race after 1 of the race's 102 laps. The finish came in Golding's 69th start, and Muscat's 10th start.

This is James Golding's 2nd full-time season, while Richard Muscat is in his 3rd season as an endurance co-driver. They were 24th in Practice 1 but improved to 23rd in Practice 2. They remained 23rd in Practice 3 but improved to 20th in Qualifying.

Scott McLaughlin and Alex Premat in the #17 Shell V-Power Ford joined Chaz Mostert and James Moffat in the #55 Supercheap Auto Ford on the sidelines after half-flipping in qualifying, writing off car #17.

After Richie Stanaway was kicked out of Garry Rodgers Motorspors for not attending an important event, Dylan O'Keefe, not driving Chris Pither's #33 Boost Mobile Holden, but there was sudden disaster at turn 11 when Tim Slade hit the fence at turn 11. Subsequently, Todd Hazelwood in the #35 UNIT Workwear Holden spun around Will Brown, driving Anton De Pasquale in the #99 Penrite Oils Holden.

This incident had a massive impact on the Bottom 5, as among the cars collected included Last-Place James Golding and Richard Muscat in the #34 Boost Mobile Holden, their car too damaged to continue, third-last Andre Heimgartner and Bryce Fullwood in the #7 Plus Fitness Nissan, their car smacking the wall in the aftermath of the crash, damaging the steering on car #7 and eventually costing them 4 laps, the trigger driver getting a drive-through penalty for the incident, then later had to replace the damaged front bumper on car #35, eventually costing them 4 laps as well.

The only two drivers in the Bottom Five not involved was 22^nd place Simona De Silvestro and Alex Rullo in the #78 Harvey Norman Nissan and 19^th place Mark Winterbottom and Steve Richards in the #18 Irwin Tools/FUCHS Holden, though the latter was involved in the turn 11 crash. Winterbottom and De Silvestro will collide on lap 63, sending car #78 to the garage for 11 laps and dropping Winterbottom and Richards down 2 laps. Continued Suspension troubles almost knocked car #78 from classification, only finishing one more lap than the minimum requirement.

The Bottom Five

James Golding/Richard Muscat	1 Lap	Crash
Simona De Silvestro/Alex Rullo	82 Laps	Running
Andre Heimgartner/Bryce Fullwood	98 Laps	Running
Todd Hazelwood/Jack Smith	98 Laps	Running
Mark Winterbottom/Steve Richards	100 Laps	Running

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	5	8
Rick Kelly	15	2	3	5
James Golding	34	2	4	4
James Courtney	22	2	3	3
Todd Hazelwood	35	1	4	5
Tim Slade	14	1	3	4
Andre Heimgartner	7	1	3	4
Scott Pye	2	1	2	4
Shane Van Gisbergen	97	1	2	3
Bryce Fullwood	7	1	2	3
Richard Muscat	34	1	1	1
Chaz Mostert	55	1	1	1
Ashley Walsh	14	1	1	1
Jack LeBrocq	19	0	6	15
Simona De Silvestro	78	0	4	8
Cameron Waters	6	0	3	4
Will Davison	23	0	2	3
Chris Pither	33	0	2	2
Mark Winterbottom	18	0	1	6
David Reynolds	9	0	1	3
Anton De Pasquale	99	0	1	2
Lee Holdsworth	5	0	1	2
Michael Caruso	33	0	1	2
Brodie Kostecki	56	0	1	2
Jake Kostecki	56	0	1	2
Jack Smith	35	0	1	2
Scott McLaughlin	17	0	1	1
Luke Youlden	9	0	1	1
Alex Rullo	78	0	1	1
Steve Richards	18	0	0	2
Will Brown	99	0	0	1
Fabian Coulthard	12	0	0	1
Tim Blanchard	77	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Team	Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Nissan Motorsports	8	8/8	20/8	29/8
Red Bull Holden Racing Team	4	4/4	5/4	6/4
Garry Rodgers Motorsports	6	5/6	11/6	16/6
Walkinshaw Andretti United	5	3/5	5/5	6/5
Matt Stone Racing	2	1/2	5/2	7/2
Brad Jones Racing	8	5/8	11/8	18/8
Tickford Racing	8	1/8	4/8	7/8
Tekno Autosports	2	0	4/2	13/2
Erebus Racing	4	0	4/4	7/4
IRWIN Racing	2	0	1/2	7/2
DJR Team Penske	4	0	1/4	2/4
Kostecki Brothers Racing	2	0	0	4/2

Manufacturer’s Championship

Manufacturer	Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Nissan	8	8/8	20/8	29/8
Holden	32	19/32	47/32	84/32
Ford	12	1/12	5/12	9/12

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.