Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: September 2022

Saturday 10 September 2022

First corner smash leaves Courtney last, and in outright third, in Auckland

Original by Supercars, edited by me.

James Courtney picked up the 21st last-place finish of his career when his #5 Snowy River Caravans Ford was involved in a 3-car crash that ended his race without completing a single corner of the final race at Auckland. The finish came in Courtney's 519th 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 22nd in Practice 1, rose slightly to 21st in Practice 2, and then slipped to 23rd in Qualifying.

Jake Kostecki in the #56 Tradie Ford started the race in the rear, but immediately James Courtney in the #5 Snowy River Caravans Ford was on the outside of a 4-wide into Turn 1 with Todd Hazelwood in the #35 Truck Assist Holden, Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Holden and Jake Kostecki in the #56 Tradie Ford, sending Courtney hard into the wall, knocking him to last place, while Hazelwood lost 7 laps in repairs, and only got back out due to a long Safety Car due to a damaged barrier.

Rounding out the Bottom Five was Will Davison in the #17 Shell V-Power Ford had the left-rear wheel not attached properly, and had the gun still attached to the wheel when the car dropped, copping a Pit-Lane penalty, losing almost 2 laps, Jack LeBrocq in the #34 Truck Assist Holden after a 14 second time penalty for weaving after the Safety Car accelerated away and Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Holden

The Bottom Five

James Courtney	0 Laps	Crash
Todd Hazelwood	34 Laps	Running
Will Davison	40 Laps	Running
Jack LeBrocq	41 Laps	Running
Jack Smith	41 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Jack LeBrocq	5	9	11
2	Scott Pye	5	6	6
3	James Courtney	3	3	4
4	Jake Kostecki	2	8	11
5	Will Brown	2	6	6
6	Andre Heimgartner	2	5	5
7	Garry Jacobson	2	3	4
8	Zak Best	2	2	2
9	Jack Smith	1	6	12
10	Chris Pither	1	5	10
11	Nick Percat	1	3	5
12	Chaz Mostert	1	2	4
13	Bryce Fullwood	1	1	7
14	Mark Winterbottom	1	1	3
15	Tim Slade	1	1	2
16	Todd Hazelwood	0	3	9
17	Thomas Randle	0	3	6
18	David Reynolds	0	3	5
19	Anton De Pasquale	0	3	3
20	Macauley Jones	0	2	6
21T	Lee Holdsworth	0	2	5
21T	Brodie Kostecki	0	2	5
22	Jordan Boys	0	2	4
23	Will Davison	0	2	2
24	James Golding	0	1	3
25	Jayden Ojeda	0	1	2
26	Cameron Waters	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	5/2	12/2	19/2
3	Tickford Racing	5	7/5	17/5	28/5
4	Premair Racing	3	3/3	8/3	16/3
5	Cooldrive Racing	1	1	1	2
6	Brad Jones Racing	4	3/4	13/4	30/4
7	Erebus Racing	3	2/3	11/3	14/3
8	Walkinshaw Andretti United	3	2/3	6/3	11/3
9	Grove Racing	2	0	5/2	8/2
10	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	5/2	5/2

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	No	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Holden	18	21/18	55/18	99/18
2	Ford	9	8/9	26/9	44/9

Massive crash into the pit wall leaves Will Brown last at Auckland

Original by Supercars, edited by me.

Will Brown picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his career when his #9 Boost Mobile Holden was involved in 2 car crash that ended his round without completing a single lap of the shortened 2nd race at Auckland. The finish came in Brown's 67th start.

Will Brown is in his 2nd full-time season and has had several great finishes ruined by bad pitstops. He was 12th in Practice 1, then plunged to 22nd in Practice 2 and only rose slightly to 21st in Qualifying.

Anton De Pasquale is one of the five 5th year drivers who were hyped to varying degrees when they joined the main game, along with Richie Stanaway, Todd Hazelwood, Jack LeBrocq and James Golding. Anton has been the most successful of all of them, scoring seven wins, including 6 last year. He was fastest in Practice 1, then dropped to 6th in Practice 2. He improved, and Qualified 4th.

Chris Pither in the #22 Coca-Cola Holden started the race in the rear, but two incidents would scuttle race progress late. Firstly Anton De Pasquale in the #17 Shell V-Power Ford tangled with Brodie Kostecki in the #99 Boost Mobile Holden, sending Anton hard into the wall, ending his race.

Two turns later, Will Brown in the #9 Boost Mobile Holden tangled with Mark Winterbottom in the #18 Irwin Tools/Fuchs Holden, sending Will Brown hard into the pit wall, triggering a 15-minute red flag. Brown would be classified last.

Following Anton and Brown out was Jack LeBrocq in the #34 Truck Assist Holden, who retired with Suspension failure late in the race. Rounding out the Bottom Five was Mark Winterbottom in the #18 Irwin Tools/Fuchs Holden copped a drive-through penalty for the incident with Brown and Thomas Randle in the #55 Castrol Ford after two separate incidents that gave him a combined 20-second time penalty.

The Bottom Five

Will Brown	0 Laps	Crash
Anton De Pasquale	0 Laps	Crash
Jack LeBrocq	30 Laps	Suspension
Mark Winterbottom	34 Laps	Running
Thomas Randle	35 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Jack LeBrocq	5	9	10
2	Scott Pye	5	6	6
3	Jake Kostecki	2	8	11
4	Will Brown	2	6	6
5	Andre Heimgartner	2	5	5
6	Garry Jacobson	2	3	4
7	James Courtney	2	2	3
8	Zak Best	2	2	2
9	Jack Smith	1	6	11
10	Chris Pither	1	5	10
11	Nick Percat	1	3	5
12	Chaz Mostert	1	2	4
13	Bryce Fullwood	1	1	7
14T	Mark Winterbottom	1	1	3
14T	Tim Slade	1	1	2
16	Thomas Randle	0	3	6
17	David Reynolds	0	3	5
18	Anton De Pasquale	0	3	3
19T	Todd Hazelwood	0	2	8
19T	Macauley Jones	0	2	6
21	Lee Holdsworth	0	2	5
22T	Brodie Kostecki	0	2	5
22T	Jordan Boys	0	2	4
24T	James Golding	0	1	3
24T	Jayden Ojeda	0	1	2
26T	Will Davison	0	1	1
26T	Cameron Waters	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	5/2	11/2	17/2
3	Tickford Racing	5	6/5	16/5	27/5
4	Premair Racing	3	3/3	8/3	16/3
5	Cooldrive Racing	1	1	1	2
6	Brad Jones Racing	4	3/4	13/4	29/4
7	Erebus Racing	3	2/3	11/3	14/3
8	Walkinshaw Andretti United	3	2/3	6/3	11/3
9	Grove Racing	2	0	5/2	8/2
10	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	4/2	4/2

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	No	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Holden	18	21/18	53/18	95/18
2	Ford	9	7/9	25/9	43/9

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.