Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: 2022

Sunday 4 December 2022

Turn 8 crash leaves Kostecki last as Jack LeBrocq wins last-place championship for 2022

Original by Fox Sports

Jake Kostecki picked up the 6th last-place finish of his career when his #56 Tradie Ford was involved in a shunt at Turn 8 that ended his race after 16 of the race's 78 laps. The finish came in Jake's 83rd start.

This means Jake Kostecki will finish 3rd overall in the last-place championship, and Jack LeBrocq will take out the 2022 Last-Place championship for the drivers, while Irwin Tools Racing will secure the 2022 Last-Place championship for teams.

Jake Kostecki is in his 2nd full-time season, and 3rd racing overall, his 1st season saw him share a ride with Zane Goddard. He was 23rd in Practice 1, but rose to 21st in Practice 2. He dropped to 22nd in Practice 3. but Qualified 16th.

Chris Pither in the #22 Coca-Cola Holden started last and held it for the first couple of Laps.

Then Lap 3 saw Scott Pye in the #20 Toyota Forklifts Holden goes off at the final corner and drop to last.

A few laps later, on Lap 6, Nick Percat in the #2 NTI/Mobil 1 Holden fell to last in a pitstop and also hit the front tire in the pitlane of Brodie Kostecki in the #99 Boost Mobile Holden. The following Lap saw Jack LeBrocq in the #34 Truck Assist Holden come into contention, smoke pouring from the Power Steering.

Next to fall to last was Chris Pither in the #22 Coca-Cola Holden after his Pitstop. Then, on Lap 15, Jack Lebrocq was forced into the Garage thanks to a Mechanical Black Flag and would drop to last, and lose 11 laps in repairs.

By the time LeBrocq returned to the track on Lap 26, he was 3 laps behind Jake Kostecki in the #56 Tradie Ford, after he hits Turn 8 hard on Lap 18, triggering the first Safety Car of the racre. LeBrocq would continue to circulate, overtaking Kostecki on Lap 31, but would return to the Garage on Lap 38, losing 8 more laps, before officially retiring on Lap 57, just 4 laps short of overtaking another victim of Turn 8.

In the #14 Middy's Electrical Holden, Bryce Fullwood lost the back of his car and hit Turn 8 hard on Lap 43, ending his race and triggering the second Safety Car of the race.

Rounding out the Bottom Five were two more drivers who lost laps due to Power Steering issues. Macauley Jones in the #96 TRG Transport Holden, lost 11 laps, and Todd Hazelwood in the #35 Truck Assist Holden, lost 7 laps with the same issue.

The Bottom 5

Jake Kostecki	18 Laps	Crash
Jack LeBrocq (CHAMP)	37 Laps	Power Steering
Bryce Fullwood	41 Laps	Crash
Macauley Jones	67 Laps	Running
Todd Hazelwood	71 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Jack LeBrocq (CHAMPION)	5	10	12
2	Scott Pye	5	7	7
3	Jake Kostecki	3	10	13
4	James Courtney	3	4	5
5	Zak Best	3	3	3
6	Will Brown	2	7	8
7	Andre Heimgartner	2	6	7
8	Garry Jacobson	2	3	4
9	Jack Smith	1	6	15
10	Chris Pither	1	5	10
11	Thomas Randle	1	4	7
12	Nick Percat	1	4	6
13	Anton De Pasquale	1	4	4
14	Bryce Fullwood	1	2	9
15T	Chaz Mostert	1	2	4
15T	James Golding	1	2	4
17	Mark Winterbottom	1	1	3
18	Tim Slade	1	1	2
19	Todd Hazelwood	0	4	11
20	David Reynolds	0	4	6
21	Macauley Jones	0	2	7
22	Lee Holdsworth	0	2	6
22	Brodie Kostecki	0	2	5
23	Jordan Boys	0	2	4
24	Will Davison	0	2	2
25	Jayden OJeda	0	1	2
26T	Matt Campbell	0	1	1
26T	Zane Goddard	0	1	1
27T	Cameron Waters	0	0	1
27T	Dale Wood	0	0	1
27T	Jaxon Evans	0	0	1
27T	Broc Feeney	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Team	No.	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Team 18 (CHAMPION_	4	6/4	8/4	10/4
2	Matt Stone Racing	4	5/4	14/4	23/4
3	Tickford Racing	9	10/9	22/9	29/9
4	Premair Racing	5	4/5	10/5	18/5
5	Brad Jones Racing	8	3/8	15/8	32/8
6	Cooldrive Racing	2	1/2	1/2	2/2
7	Erebus Racing	6	2/6	11/6	17/6
8	Walkinshaw Andretti United	5	2/6	7/6	12/6
9	Dick Johnson Racing	4	1/4	6/4	6/4
10	Grove Racing	4	0	7/4	13/4
11	Red Bull Ampol Racing	4	0	0	1/4

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	No	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Ford(CHAMP)	18	12/18	37/18	50/18
2	Holden	38	22/38	65/38	113/38

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.