Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: April 2022

Saturday 30 April 2022

Major crash that brought out Red Flag leaves Pye last at Wanneroo

Original by Fox Sports, edited by me.

Scott Pye picked up the 17th last-place finish of his career when his #20 Nulon/Toyota Forklifts Holden was involved in a single-car crash that ended his race after 1 of the race's 46 laps. The finish came in Pye's 289th start.

Scott Pye is in his 10th full-time season and has been to the school of hard knocks, drifting between several teams, including Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport, Dick Johnson Racing and its successor DJR Team Penske, Walkinshaw Racing and its successor Walkinshaw Andretti United, before finally landing at Charlie Schwerkolt Racing in 2020.

Mark Winterbottom in the #18 Irwin Tools/Fuchs Holden started the race in the rear after a 3 grid place penalty for Impeding Shane Van Gisbergen in the #97 Red Bull/Ampol Holden in Qualifying. but near Turn 4 Lee Holdsworth in the #10 Penrite Holden and Thomas Randle in the #55 Castrol Ford went off at Turn 4, both damaging their cars.

Scott Pye in the #20 Nulon/Toyota Forklifts was turned into the wall by Jack LeBrocq in the #34 Truck Assist Holden, sending him hard into the wall on the front straight, triggering a Red Flag.

The remainder of the Bottom 5 was still up for grabs though, as Holdsworth's car was repaired during the Red Flag, with Randle 1 lap down and Holdsworth 2 laps down. Late race drama, however, would elevate Randle out of the Bottom 5.

Will Brown in the #9 Boost Mobile Holden stopped on track on Lap 37 with electrical issues, triggering the only Safety Car of the race.

Rounding out the Bottom Five was Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Holden and Bryce Fullwood in the #14 Middy's Electrical Holden after coming together on the last lap, leaving Smith in the sand and Fullwood didn’t know it was the last lap, so he pulled up to get the tire changed, but failed to be classified as a result.

The Bottom Five

Scott Pye	1 Lap	Crash
Will Brown	34 Laps	Electrical
Jack Smith	45 Laps	Spun Off
Bryce Fullwood	46 Laps	Miscommunication
Lee Holdsworth	44 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Jack LeBrocq	3	4	5
2	Scott Pye	3	3	3
3	Jack Smith	1	3	5
4T	Andre Heimgartner	1	3	3
4T	Jake Kostecki	1	3	3
5	Bryce Fullwood	1	1	4
6	Garry Jacobson	1	1	1
7	Chris Pither	0	3	4
8	Will Brown	0	3	3
9T	David Reynolds	0	2	3
9T	Nick Percat	0	2	3
11T	Macauley Jones	0	1	3
11T	Chaz Mostert	0	1	3
13	Thomas Randle	0	1	2
14T	Anton De Pasquale	0	1	1
14T	Will Davison	0	1	1
16	Lee Holdsworth	0	0	3
17T	Brodie Kostecki	0	0	1
17T	Cameron Waters	0	0	1
17T	James Courtney	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Team	No.	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Matt Stone Racing	2	3/2	4/2	4/2
2	Team 18	2	3/2	3/2	3/2
3	Brad Jones Racing	4	3/4	8/4	15/4
4	Premair Racing	2	½	4/2	5/2
5	Tickford Racing	4	1/4	4/4	11/4
6	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	0	3/2	6/2
7T	Erebus Racing	2	0	3/2	4/2
7T	Grove Racing	2	0	2/2	4/2
9	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	2/2	2/2

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	No	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Holden	16	10/16	26/16	37/16
2	Ford	9	1/9	7/9	18/9

Transaxle failure leaves Fullwood last at Wanneroo

Bryce Fullwood picked up the 4th last-place finish of his career when his #14 Middy's Electrical Holden retired with a Transaxle issue after 32 of the race's 46 laps. The finish came in Fullwood's 75th start

Bryce Fullwood is in his 3rd full-time season. He spent the first two years at Walkinshaw Andretti United, before moving to Brad Jones Racing in 2022. He was 24th in Practice 1 but jumped to 16th in Practice 2. He then fell to 22nd in Qualifying.

Nick Percat in the #2 NTI/Mobil 1 Holden started the race in the rear, but at turn 1 Chris Pither in the #22 Coca-Cola Holden spun and fell to the rear.

Jack LeBrocq in the #34 Truck Assist Holden pitted at the end of Lap 6 and dropped to last. Lap 14 saw Jake Kostecki in the #56 Tradie Holden pit and drop to last.

Lap 23 saw Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Holden pitted and fell to last, dropping a Lap in the process.

He held last until Bryce Fullwood in the #14 Middy's Electrical pitted, and pulled into the Garage on Lap 32, dropping him to last with a Transaxle issue.

Rounding out the Bottom Five was Chris Pither in the #22 Coca-Cola Holden, Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Holden, Chaz Mostert in the #25 Optus/Mobil 1 Holden and Nick Percat in the #2 NIT/Mobile 1 Holden.

The Bottom Five

Bryce Fullwood	32 Laps	Transaxle
Chris Pither	46 Laps	Running
Jack Smith	46 Laps	Running
Chaz Mostert	46 Laps	Running
Nick Percat	46 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Jack LeBrocq	3	4	5
2	Scott Pye	2	2	2
3T	Andre Heimgartner	1	3	3
3T	Jake Kostecki	1	3	3
4	Jack Smith	1	2	4
5	Bryce Fullwood	1	1	3
6	Garry Jacobson	1	1	1
7	Chris Pither	0	3	4
8T	David Reynolds	0	2	3
8T	Nick Percat	0	2	3
10	Will Brown	0	2	2
11T	Macauley Jones	0	1	3
11T	Chaz Mostert	0	1	3
13	Thomas Randle	0	1	2
14T	Anton De Pasquale	0	1	1
14T	Will Davison	0	1	1
16T	Lee Holdsworth	0	0	2
17T	Brodie Kostecki	0	0	1
17T	Cameron Waters	0	0	1
17T	James Courtney	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Team	No.	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Matt Stone Racing	2	3/2	4/2	4/2
2	Team 18	2	2/2	2/2	2/2
3	Brad Jones Racing	4	3/4	7/4	13/4
4	Premair Racing	2	½	4/2	5/2
5	Tickford Racing	4	1/4	4/4	11/4
6	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	0	3/2	6/2
7T	Erebus Racing	2	0	2/2	3/2
7T	Grove Racing	2	0	2/2	3/2
9	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	2/2	2/2

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	No	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Holden	16	9/16	23/16	33/16
2	Ford	9	1/9	7/9	17/9

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.