Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: Late race flat tire leaves Pither last at Sandown after intense last-place battles

Saturday 20 August 2022

Late race flat tire leaves Pither last at Sandown after intense last-place battles

Chris Pither picked up the 10th last-place finish of his career when he finished under power, 1 lap down in the first race at Sandown. The finish came in Pither's 126th start.

Chris Pither is in his 3rd full-time season but has been Co-driver since 2006. He was 10th in Practice 1 but plummeted to 23rd in Practice 3, where he stayed in Qualifying.

James Golding in the #31 Subway Holden started the race in the rear, but at Turn 9 Broc Feeney in the #88 Red Bull Holden was punted by Andre Heimgartner in the #8 R&J Batteries/Club Cadet Holden, dropping him to last.

Lap 4 saw Feeney work his way past Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Holden.

Pitstops stay on Lap 4 and Chris Pither in the #22 Coca-Cola Holden. He held last until Andre Heimgartner in the #8 R&J Batteries/Club Cadet Holden pitted on Lap 9, taking his 15-second penalty, dropping to last, a lap down.

Heimgartner held last until Lap 25 when Lee Holdsworth in the #500 Penrite Ford pitted, and stalled, falling to last.

Lap 27 saw Chris Pither in the #22 Coca-Cola Holden pit with a flat tire, dropping to last.

Rounding out the Bottom Five were Jake Kostecki in the #56 Tradie Ford and Todd Hazelwood in the #35 Truck Assist Holden.

The Bottom Five

Chris Pither	35 Laps	Running
Lee Holdsworth	36 Laps	Running
Andre Heimgartner	36 Laps	Running
Jake Kostecki	36 Laps	Running
Todd Hazelwood	36 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	10
4	Andre Heimgartner	2	5	5
5	Garry Jacobson	2	3	4
6	James Courtney	2	2	3
7	Zak Best	2	2	2
8	Jack Smith	1	6	10
9	Chris Pither	1	5	9
10	Will Brown	1	5	5
11	Nick Percat	1	3	4
12	Chaz Mostert	1	2	4
13	Bryce Fullwood	1	1	5
14T	Thomas Randle	0	3	5
14T	David Reynolds	0	3	5
16	Lee Holdsworth	0	2	5
17	Jordan Boys	0	2	4
18T	Macauley Jones	0	1	5
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	6
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	11/2
3	Tickford Racing	5	6/5	16/5	24/5
4	Premair Racing	3	3/3	8/3	15/3
5	Brad Jones Racing	4	3/4	12/4	25/4
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	5/2	8/2
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	18/18	43/18	80/18
2	Ford	9	6/9	23/9	38/9

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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.