Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: June 2022

Sunday 19 June 2022

Turn 6 contact leaves Wildcard Zak Best last at Hidden Valley

Original by Fox Sports, edited by me.

Zak Best picked up the 1st last-place finish of his career when his #78 Opposite Lock Ford was involved in 2 car incident that ended his race after 24 of the race's 38 laps. The finish came in Zak Best's 4th start.

A wildcard with 1 previous start heading into the Indigenous Round weekend, Zak Best is mainly running around in Super 2. He was 26th in Practice 1 and was initially slowest in Practice 2, but was elevated to 26th when Mostert was disqualified. He qualified the slowest.

Zak Best in the #78 Opposite Lock Ford started the race in the rear, but Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Holden fell to last, then Macauley Jones in the #96 Kubota Holden fell to last, then Jaden Ojeda in the #27 ECL Holden collided with Brodie Kostecki in the #99 Boost Mobile Holden, damaging the Suspension on OJeda's car, sending him to the Garage in last place. He returned to the track, but was not classified due to being 13 laps down.

Lap 25 saw Zak Best in the #78 Opposite Lock Ford collide with Garry Jacobson in the #76 Subway Holden, sending Best to the grass and the fence, ending Best's race. He was dropped to last on the final lap.

Rounding out the Bottom Five were Brodie Kostecki in the #99 Boost Mobile Holden, Todd Hazelwood in the #35 Truck Assist Holden, and Garry Jacobson in the #76 Subway Holden after a pit-lane penalty for taking out Best.

The Bottom Five

Zak Best	24 Laps	Crash
Jayden Ojeda	25 Laps	Crash
Brodie Kostecki	37 Laps	Running
Todd Hazelwood	37 Laps	Running
Garry Jacobson	38 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Scott Pye	4	5	5
2	Jack LeBrocq	3	4	5
3	Garry Jacobson	2	3	4
4	James Courtney	2	2	3
5	Jake Kostecki	1	5	6
6	Will Brown	1	5	5
7	Jack Smith	1	4	8
8	Andre Heimgartner	1	3	3
9	Chaz Mostert	1	2	4
10	Bryce Fullwood	1	1	5
11	Zak Best	1	1	1
12	Chris Pither	0	4	7
13	David Reynolds	0	3	4
14	Thomas Randle	0	2	4
15	Nick Percat	0	2	3
16T	Macauley Jones	0	1	3
16T	Jordan Boys	0	1	3
16T	Brodie Kostecki	0	1	3
19	Jayden Ojeda	0	1	2
20	Anton De Pasquale	0	1	1
20T	Will Davison	0	1	1
22T	Lee Holdsworth	0	0	3
22T	Todd Hazelwood	0	0	3
24T	Cameron Waters	0	0	1
24T	Mark Winterbottom	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Team	No.	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Team 18	2	4/2	5/2	6/2
2	Matt Stone Racing	2	3/2	4/2	7/2
3	Premair Racing	2	2/2	6/2	10/2
4	Tickford Racing	5	4/5	11/5	18/5
5	Brad Jones Racing	4	3/4	8/4	19/4
6	Erebus Racing	3	1/3	8/3	10/3
7	Walkinshaw Andretti United	3	1/3	5/3	9/3
8	Grove Racing	2	0	3/2	5/2
9	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	2/2	2/2

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	No	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Holden	18	14/18	33/18	62/18
2	Ford	9	4/9	15/9	27/9

Saturday 18 June 2022

Multi-car smash leaves Courtney last at Hidden Valley

Original by Fox Sports, edited by me.

James Courtney picked up the 20th last-place finish of his career when his #5 Snowy River Caravans Ford was involved in a 6-car pileup that ended his race without completing a single lap of the second race at Darwin. The finish came in Courtney's 507th start.

James Courtney is a veteran of the sport, in his 17th full-time season, and has both 1 Supercar championship in 2010, and 1 Superlastcar championship in 2018. He was 3rd in Practice 1, but slid all the way to 24th, but elevated to 23rd when Chaz Mostert was disqualified and rose to 20th in Qualifying.

Zak Best in the #78 Opposite Lock Ford started the race in the rear after crashing in Qualifying and battled with Macauley Joens in the #96 Drill Pro Services/tools.com Holden for last.

Lap 2 saw James Courtney in the #5 Snowy River Caravans Ford was served at Turn 5 by Garry Jacobson in the #76 Subway Holden, went across the track, hit the tires, then slid back on at Turn 6, collecting Scott Pye in the #20 Nulon/Toyota Forklifts Holden, Thomas Randle in the #55 Castrol Ford, Todd Hazelwood in the #35 Truck Assist Holden, Will Brown in the #9 Boost Mobile Holden and Brodie Kostecki in the #99 Boost Mobile Holden, ending the races of Courtney, Pye and Randle, with Hazelwood losing 7 laps in repairs. Randle did eventually get back out, but at 22 laps down he couldn’t be classified, and retired officially a few laps later.

Rounding out the Bottom Five was Jayden Ojeda in the #27 Mobil 1/ECL Holden.

The Bottom Five

James Courtney	0 Lap	Crash
Scott Pye	0 Lap	Crash
Thomas Randle	6 Laps	Crash
Todd Hazelwood	29 Laps	Running
Jayden Ojeda	37 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Scott Pye	4	5	5
2	Jack LeBrocq	3	4	5
3	Garry Jacobson	2	3	3
4	James Courtney	2	2	3
5	Jake Kostecki	1	5	6
6	Will Brown	1	5	5
7	Jack Smith	1	4	8
8	Andre Heimgartner	1	3	3
9	Chaz Mostert	1	2	4
10	Bryce Fullwood	1	1	5
11	Chris Pither	0	4	7
12	David Reynolds	0	3	4
13	Thomas Randle	0	2	4
14T	Nick Percat	0	2	3
14T	Macauley Jones	0	1	3
14T	Jordan Boys	0	1	3
17	Anton De Pasquale	0	1	1
18	Will Davison	0	1	1
19	Lee Holdsworth	0	0	3
20	Brodie Kostecki	0	0	2
21T	Todd Hazelwood	0	0	2
21T	Cameron Waters	0	0	1
21T	Mark Winterbottom	0	0	1
21T	Jayden OJeda	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Team	No.	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Team 18	2	4/2	5/2	6/2
2	Matt Stone Racing	2	3/2	4/2	6/2
3	Premair Racing	2	2/2	6/2	9/2
4	Brad Jones Racing	4	3/4	8/4	19/4
5	Tickford Racing	5	3/5	10/5	17/5
6	Erebus Racing	3	1/3	7/3	9/3
7T	Walkinshaw Andretti United	3	1/3	4/3	8/3
7T	Grove Racing	2	0	3/2	5/2
9	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	2/2	2/2

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	No	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Holden	18	14/18	31/18	58/18
2	Ford	9	3/9	14/9	26/9

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.