Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: Steering column failure leaves Will Brown last at Townsville

Saturday 17 July 2021

Steering column failure leaves Will Brown last at Townsville

Original by Supercars, edited by me.

Will Brown picked up the 1st last-place finish of his career when his #9 Group Solutions Holden retired with a Steering Column failure after 25 of the race's 39 laps. The finish came in Brown's 27th start.

Will Brown is a rookie in the 2021 championship but has run a couple of seasons as Co-Driver. He was 6th in Practice 1 but slipped to 7th in Qualifying.

Tim Slade in the #3 Cooldrive Distribution Holden started the race in the rear after losing a tire in Qualifying but before turn 1 Jack LeBrocq in the #5 Truck Assist Ford fell to the rear. At turn 4 Nick Percat in the #8 RT Batteries Holden spun out, maybe after being turned by Fabian Coulthard in the #19 Local Legends Holden, dropping to the rear.

Lap 6 saw Fabian Coulthard in the #19 Local Legends Holden blows a tire, having to pit and dropping to the rear.

Macauley Jones in the #96 Coca-Cola Holden bumped the wall at Turn 4, spinning to 2nd last then eventually fell to last on Lap 19.

Lap 26 saw a storm of retirements, as Will Brown in the #9 Group Solutions Holden, Macauley Jones in the #96 Coca-Cola Holden and Zane Goddard in the #35 Yellow Cover Holden all pulled into the garage within a few laps of each other. Goddard retired with Power Steering issues, Jones retired with Clutch failure, and Will Brown retired with a collapsed Steering Column. This left Brown last.

Rounding out the Bottom Five was Fabian Coulthard in the #19 Local Legends Holden, and Andre Heimgartner in the #7 NED Ford.

The Bottom Five

Will Brown	25 Laps	Steering Column
Macauley Jones	26 Laps	Clutch
Zane Goddard	33 Laps	Running
Fabian Coulthard	38 Laps	Running
Andre Heimgartner	39 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Driver	Car No.	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Macauley Jones	96	3	5	8
Garry Jacobson	22	2	5	10
Jack Smith	4	2	5	9
Anton De Pasquale	11	2	3	4
Jake Kostecki	35	1	4	5
Andre Heimgartner	7	1	3	4
David Reynolds	26	1	2	4
James Courtney	44	1	2	2
Chaz Mostert	25	1	2	2
Zane Goddard	35	1	2	5
Will Brown	9	1	2	2
Nick Percat	8	1	1	2
Bryce Fullwood	2	1	1	2
Fabian Coulthard	19	0	6	12
Scott Pye	20	0	3	3
Todd Hazelwood	14	0	2	2
Brodie Kostecki	88	0	2	2
Mark Winterbottom	18	0	1	3
Cameron Waters	6	0	1	2
Will Davison	17	0	1	1
Thomas Randle	55	0	1	1
Jack LeBrocq	5	0	0	3
Tim Slade	3	0	0	1
Kurt Kostecki	27	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Team	No. Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Brad Jones Racing	4	6/4	13/4	20/4
Team Sydney	2	2/2	11/2	21/2
Matt Stone Racing	2	2/2	4/2	6/2
Dick Johnson Racing	2	2/2	4/2	5/2
Walkinshaw Andretti United	3	2/3	3/3	4/3
Kelly Grove Racing	2	1/2	5/2	7/2
Erebus Racing	2	1/2	3/2	3/2
Tickford Racing	4	1/4	5/4	8/4
Irwin Racing	2	0	3/2	6/2
Tim Blanchard Racing	1	0	0	1

Manufacturer’s Championship

Manufacturer	No. Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Holden	17	12/17	35/17	61/17
Ford	9	6/9	16/9	24/9

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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.