Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: Late-Race crash leaves Heimgartner and Fullwood last on the Gold Coast

Saturday 26 October 2019

Late-Race crash leaves Heimgartner and Fullwood last on the Gold Coast

Original by Supercars, edited by me.

Andre Heimgartner picked up his 4th last-place finish of his career, while Bryce Fulwood picked up his 1st last-place finish of his career when their #7 Plus Fitness Nissan was involved in a 2 car crash that ended their race after 98 of the race's 102 laps. The finish came in Heimgartner's 119th start, and Fulwood's 5th start.

Andre Heimgartner's in his 5th full-time season, though he was only a co-driver for 2017. Bryce Fullwood meanwhile has only run the main game this year, and even then only for a few races. They were 12th in Practice 1, then rose to 11th in Practice 2, the co-drivers session. They stayed 11th for Practice 3, then jumped to 8th for Qualifying, entering car #7 into the shootout, and though he was the slowest of the Shootouters, he lined up 8th since James Courtney got a kerb strike and Chaz Mostert crashed out of the weekend on his race.

Jonathon Webb in Jack leBrocq's #19 Truck Assist Holden started the race in the rear, but by the first chicane Dean Fiore, driving Garry Jacobson's #3 Rabble.club Nissan had fallen to the rear, and held it until lap 7 when Jack Perkins in the #22 Mobil 1 Holden dived down the inside of Tony D'Alberto in Fabian Coulthard's #12 Shell V-Power Ford, at turn 11, sending car #12 down the escape road and down to last. Tony would race back and drop Alex Rullo, driving Simona De Silvestro's #78 Harvey Norman Nissan to last.

Rullo held last until lap 15 when Steve Richards, driving Mark Winterbottom's #18 Irwin Tools/FUCHS Holden fell to the rear. Pitstops started on lap 18 when Jack Perkins, driving James Courtney's #22 Appliances Online/Mobil 1 Holden pitted and served his 15 second penalty for the hit on D'Alberto and dropped to the rear, a lap down.

On lap 22 Chris Pither, driving Richie Stanaway's #33 Boost Mobile Holden, had contact on the exit of turn 4 on lap 23 with D'Alberto, sending Pither to the garage and down to last, losing three laps in repairs.

Luke Youlden, driving David Reynolds #9 Penrite/Kiss Holden damaged the front air dam on his car around lap 25. After losing three laps in repairs, he fell behind Pither on lap 36 after another pitstop, this time for a flat tire.

After a long stint and pit-stops, Stanaway fell to last on lap 64.

Just as it seemed like Stanaway and Pither were going to finish last, Catastrophe strikes for Andre Heimgartner in the #7 Plus Fitness Nissan was taken out by James Courtney in the #22 Appliances Online/Mobil 1 Holden at turn 4, sending car #7 hard into the wall and out of the race, dropping to last post-race since he wasn't running at the end of the race.

With cars #7, #33 and #9 filling out the bottom three, rounding out the bottom five was Mark Winterbottom and Steve Richards in the #18 Irwin Tools/FUCHS Holden after a gear sensor issue during the first pit-stop and Brodie Kostecki and Jake Kostecki in the #56 Boost Mobile Holden after engine troubles mid-race.

The Bottom Five

Andre Heimgartner/Bryce Fullwood	98 Laps	Crash
Richie Stanaway/Chris Pither	98 Laps	Running
David Reynolds/Luke Youlden	99 Laps	Running
Mark Winterbottom/Steven Richards	100 Laps	Running
Brodie Kostecki/Jake Kostecki	100 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	5	8
Todd Hazelwood	35	1	4	4
Rick Kelly	15	2	3	5
James Courtney	22	2	3	3
Tim Slade	14	1	3	4
James Golding	34	1	3	3
Scott Pye	2	1	2	4
Shane Van Gisbergen	97	1	2	3
Andre Heimgartner	7	1	2	3
Bryce Fullwood	7	1	1	2
Chaz Mostert	55	1	1	1
Ashley Walsh	14	1	1	1
Jack LeBrocq	19	0	6	15
Simona De Silvestro	78	0	3	7
Cameron Waters	6	0	3	4
Will Davison	23	0	2	3
Chris Pither	33	0	2	2
Anton De Pasquale	99	0	1	2
Mark Winterbottom	18	0	1	5
David Reynolds	9	0	1	3
Lee Holdsworth	5	0	1	2
Michael Caruso	33	0	1	2
Brodie Kostecki	56	0	1	2
Jake Kostecki	56	0	1	2
Scott McLaughlin	17	0	1	1
Jack Smith	35	0	1	1
Will Brown	99	0	0	1
Fabian Coulthard	12	0	0	1
Tim Blanchard	77	0	0	1
Luke Youlden	9	0	1	1
Steve Richards	18	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Team	Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Nissan Motorsports	8	8/8	16/8	25/8
Red Bull Holden Racing Team	4	4/4	5/4	6/4
Walkinshaw Andretti United	5	3/5	5/5	6/5
Matt Stone Racing	2	1/2	5/2	5/2
Garry Rodgers Motorsports	6	3/6	9/6	14/6
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	5/2
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	16/8	25/8
Holden	32	17/32	47/32	80/32
Ford	12	1/12	5/12	9/12

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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.