Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: July 2022

Sunday 31 July 2022

Windscreen Wiper failure leaves Best last at wet Tailem Bend

Original by VelocityNews, edited by me.

Zak Best picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his career when his unsponsored #78 Ford retired with a windscreen wiper failure after 5 of the race's 24 laps. The finish came in Best's 7th start.

Zak Best is a wildcard this year, running at two events. He's already finished last once, after being taken out by Garry Jacobson at Hiden Valley. He was 3rd in Practice 1 but dropped to 9th in Practice 2. He qualified on pole for the first race, an incredible achievement, and even held his own for a time, before finishing 5th. He qualified 7^th in this race.

The field shrunk to 25 cars after the massive crash in Race 2. David Reynolds in the #26 Penrite Ford started the race in the rear after a mistake in Qualifying and held last during the Safety Car start.

Chris Pither in the #22 Coca-Cola Holden fell to last just after the start of Lap 2.

The first retirement came from Zack Best in the unsponsored #78 Ford when he pulled into the garage on Lap 5 with a broken windscreen wiper. Just a lap later, several cars crashed at Turn 6, including teammates Jack LeBrocq in the #34 Truck Assist Holden and Todd Hazelwood in the #35 Truck Assist Holden, ending the former’s race.

The final retirement of the race came from Jake Kostecki in the #56 Tradie Ford got a Mechanical Black Flag on Lap 8, and pulled into the garage with a broken front bar, and although he got back out, he completed an insufficient amount of laps to be classified as a finisher.

Rounding out the Bottom Five was David Reynolds in the #26 Penrite Ford after he aquaplaned into the back of James Golding in the #31 Subway Holden about Lap 13, and pulled into the garage on Lap 16, dropping 4 laps in repairs and Todd Hazelwood in the #35 Truck Assist Holden.

Despite being crashed into by Reynolds, James Golding managed to finish 14^th. And after fixing his car after his part in the massive crash at the start of Race 2, Nick Percat in the #2 NTI/Mobil 1 Holden finished 9^th.

The Bottom Five

Zak Best	5 Laps	Windscreen Wiper Motor
Jack LeBrocq	5 Laps	Crash
Jake Kostecki	17 Laps	Mechanical
David Reynolds	20 Laps	Running
Todd Hazelwood	23 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Scott Pye	5	6	6
2	Jack LeBrocq	3	5	6
3	Jake Kostecki	2	8	9
4	Garry Jacobson	2	3	4
5	James Courtney	2	2	3
6	Jack Smith	1	6	10
7	Will Brown	1	5	5
8	Andre Heimgartner	1	4	4
9	Nick Percat	1	3	4
10	Chaz Mostert	1	2	4
11	Bryce Fullwood	1	1	5
12	Zak Best	2	2	2
13	Chris Pither	0	4	8
14T	Thomas Randle	0	3	5
14T	David Reynolds	0	3	5
16	Jordan Boys	0	2	4
17	Macauley Jones	0	1	5
18T	Lee Holdsworth	0	1	4
18T	Brodie Kostecki	0	1	4
20	James Golding	0	1	3
21T	Jayden Ojeda	0	1	2
21T	Mark Winterbottom	1	1	2
23T	Anton De Pasquale	0	1	1
23T	Will Davison	0	1	1
25	Todd Hazelwood	0	0	5
26	Cameron Waters	0	0	1
27	Tim Slade	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Team	No.	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Team 18	2	6/2	7/2	8/2
2	Matt Stone Racing	2	3/2	5/2	10/2
3	Tickford Racing	5	6/5	16/5	23/5
4	Brad Jones Racing	4	3/4	11/4	24/4
5	Premair Racing	3	2/3	7/3	14/3
6	Walkinshaw Andretti United	3	2/3	6/3	10/3
7	Erebus Racing	3	1/3	9/3	12/3
8	Grove Racing	2	0	4/2	7/2
9	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	2/2	2/2
10	Cooldrive Racing	1	0	0	1

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	No	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Holden	18	17/18	41/18	77/18
2	Ford	9	6/9	22/9	36/9

Saturday 30 July 2022

Massive Start Line crash leaves innocent victim Percat last at Tailem Bend

Nick Percat picked up the 13th last-place finish of his career when his #2 NTI/Mobil 1 Holden was involved in a start-line 3 car crash that ended his race without completing a single lap at Tailem Bend.’s shortened 18-lap 2^nd race. The finish came in Percat's 273rd start.

Percat is a veteran of this sport, in his 9th full-time season after having run a few endurance years beforehand. He was 12th in Practice 1 but improved to 11th in Practice 2. He then slipped to 14th in Qualifying,

Tim Slade in the #3 Cooldrive Distribution Ford started the race in the rear. Then, Thomas Randle in the #55 Castrol Ford stalled on the grid with Clutch failure and was clobbered by Andre Heimgartner in the #8 R&J Batteries/Club Cadet Holden and Nick Percat in the #2 NTI/Mobile 1 Holden. Due to the drivers' positions at the start of the race, Percat was left last, with Heimgartner, than Randle.

Rounding out the Bottom Five was Brodie Kostecki in the #99 Boost Mobile Holden copped a pit-lane penalty for a pit stop infringement. Brodie would then suffer a flat tire after contact with David Reynolds in the #26 Penrite Ford. The combination left Kostecki last of the runners, 4th last overall. Finally, James Golding in the #31 Subway Holden after a late race tire issue.

The Bottom Five

Nick Percat	0 Laps	Crash
Andre Heimgartner	0 Laps	Crash
Thomas Randle	0 Laps	Crash
Brodie Kostecki	17 Laps	Running
James Golding	18 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

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

Team’s Championship

Pos	Team	No.	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Team 18	2	6/2	7/2	8/2
2	Matt Stone Racing	2	3/2	4/2	8/2
3	Premair Racing	2	2/2	7/2	14/2
4	Tickford Racing	5	5/5	14/5	21/5
5	Brad Jones Racing	4	3/4	11/4	24/4
6	Walkinshaw Andretti United	3	2/3	6/3	10/3
7	Erebus Racing	3	1/3	9/3	12/3
8	Grove Racing	2	0	4/2	6/2
9	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	2/2	2/2
10	Cooldrive Racing	1	0	0	1

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	No	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Holden	18	17/18	40/18	75/18
2	Ford	9	5/9	20/9	33/9

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.