Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: October 2022

Saturday 29 October 2022

Tire pressure breach disqualification leaves Anton De Pasquale last on the Gold Coast as Ford take out the Manufacturer's Championship for 2022

Original by Supercars, edited by me.

Anton De Pasquale picked up the 6th last-place finish of his career when his #11 Shell V-Power Ford was Disqualified for a tire violation after -85 of the race's 85 laps. The finish came in Anton's 150th start. This is his 2nd last-place finish in a row due to disqualification for a tire violation.

This year is Anton's 5th full-time season and his 2nd racing for Dick Johnson Racing. Last year for him was incredibly successful, with 6 wins, but also beset by multiple mechanical issues. He was 8th in Practice 1 but rose slightly to 7th in Practice 2. Anton qualified 8th but was slowest in the shootout, so lined up 10th.

Macauley Jones picked up the 10th last-place finish of his career when his #96 Pertamina Fastron Holden was involved in a 16-car pileup that ended his race after 3 of the race's 85 laps. The finish came in Jones' 142nd start. With this last-place finish, Holden officially takes out the Manufacturer’s Championship.

Tim Slade in the #3 Cooldrive Distribution Ford started the race in the rear after crashing in Qualifying, but quickly Jake Kostecki in the #56 Tradie Ford fell to last. Soon afterwards Andre Heimgartner in the #8 R&J Batteries Holden dropped to last.

The Big one happened on Lap 5, when James Golding in the #31 Subway Holden collected the tires, sending it into the path of Thomas Randle in the #55 Castrol Ford. A whole bunch of cars piled in, including Anton De Pasquale in the #17 Shell V-Power Ford, Mark Winterbottom in the #18 Irwin Tools/Fuchs Jack LeBrocq in the #34 Truck Assist Holden, Bryce Fullwood in the #14 Middy's Electrical Holden, Chris Pither in the #22 Coca-Cola Holden, Jake Kostecki in the #56 Tradie Ford, Tim Slade in the #3 Cooldrive Distribution Ford, Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Holden, Andre Hiemgartner in the #8 R?7J Batteries Holden, Todd Hazelwood in the #35 Truck Assist Holden, Broc Feeney in the #88 Red Bull/Ampol Holden, Lee Holdsworth in the #10 Penrite Oils Ford, Nick Percat in the #2 NTI/Mobile 1 Holden and Macauley Jones in the #96 Pertamina Fastron Holden.

Out of everyone involved, Hazelwood, Golding, Feeney, Holdsworth, Percat and Jones were all out. Courtney and Randle managed to get back running, Randle, however, would have late race Mechanical issues and would DNF, while Courtney barely managed to be classified as a finisher

The Bottom Five were Macauley Jones, Nick Percat, Lee Holdsworth, Broc Feeney and James Golding until post-race when Anton De Pasquale in the #11 Shell V-Power Ford was disqualified for a tire pressure breach, dropping him to last and lifting Golding out of the Bottom 5.

This is also the first appearance in the Bottom 5 for Red Bull Ampol.

The Bottom Five

Anton De Pasquale	-85 Laps	Disqualified
Macauley Jones	3 Laps	Crash
Nick Percat	3 Laps	Crash
Lee Holdsworth	3 Laps	Crash
Broc Feeney	3 Laps	Crash

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	4	5
4	Zak Best	3	3	3
5	Jake Kostecki	2	9	12
6	Will Brown	2	7	7
7	Andre Heimgartner	2	6	7
8	Garry Jacobson	2	3	4
9	Jack Smith	1	6	14
10	Chris Pither	1	5	10
11	Thomas Randle	1	4	7
12	Nick Percat	1	4	6
13	Anton De Pasquale	1	4	4
14	Chaz Mostert	1	2	4
15	Bryce Fullwood	1	1	8
16	Mark Winterbottom	1	1	3
17	Tim Slade	1	1	2
18	David Reynolds	0	4	6
19	Todd Hazelwood	0	3	9
20	Lee Holdsworth	0	2	6
21T	Macauley Jones	0	2	6
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
26T	Matt Campbell	0	1	1
26T	Zane Goddard	0	1	1
27T	Cameron Waters	0	0	1
27T	Dale Wood	0	0	1
27T	Jaxon Evans	0	0	1
27T	Broc Feeney	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Team	No.	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Team 18	4	6/4	7/4	9/4
2	Matt Stone Racing	4	5/4	12/4	20/4
3	Tickford Racing	9	9/9	21/9	28/9
4	Brad Jones Racing	8	3/8	14/8	29/8
5	Premair Racing	5	3/5	9/5	17/5
6	Cooldrive Racing	2	1/2	1/2	2/2
7	Erebus Racing	6	2/6	11/6	16/6
8	Walkinshaw Andretti United	5	2/6	7/6	12/6
9	Dick Johnson Racing	4	1/4	6/4	6/4
10	Grove Racing	4	0	7/4	13/4
11	Red Bull Ampol Racing	4	0	0	1/4

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	No	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Ford	18	11/18	36/18	49/18
2	Holden	38	21/38	60/38	104/38

Mid race Engine failure leaves Heimgartner last on the Gold Coast

Original by Supercars, edited by me.

Andre Heimgartner picked up the 10th last-place finish of his career when his #8 R&J Batteries Holden retired with Engine failure after 30 of the race's 85 laps. The finish came in Heimgartner's 210th start.

It hasn’t been an easy year for Andre Heimgartner, his 5^th full-time. With his 2^nd last-place finish of the season, Andre moves to 6^th overall, although he is still eliminated from Last-place contention. Realistically, only LeBrocq and Pye are in contention. He was 9th in Practice 1 and rose to 6th in Practice 2. He slipped to 7th in Qualifying, but lost his time due to a kerb strike in the shootout, leaving him 10th.

Todd Hazelwood in the #35 Truck Assist Holden started the race in the rear after firstly a crash in Qualifying, then being hit with a grid penalty and being excluded from both Practice sessions for a technical infraction, and held last initially, about four-tenths of a second behind Jake Kostecki.

Hazelwood would drop Jake Kostecki in the #56 Tradie Ford to last on Lap 6.

The first pitstops happened on Lap 8, and Will Davison in the #17 Shell V-Power Ford pitted and dropped to last, followed by Chris Pither in the #22 Coca-Cola Holden after his pitstop on Lap 9.

Pither held last until Lap 23 when Jake Kostecki in the #56 Tradie Ford pitted and returned to last.

Will Brown in the #9 Boost Mobile Holden blew a Power Steering on lap 30 and crashed into the tire bundle, sending car #9 to the garage and down to last. The following lap Andre Heimagrtner in the #8 R&J Batteries Holden pulled into the garage with Engine issues. Brown would lose 14 laps in repairs and would put Heimgartner to last on Lap 45.

Rounding out the Bottom Five was Jake Kostecki in the #56 Tradie Ford, Bryce Fullwood in the #14 Middy's Electrical Holden and Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Holden.

The Bottom Five

Andre Heimgartner	30 Laps	Engine
Will Brown	70 Laps	Running
Jake Kostecki	82 Laps	Running
Bryce Fullwood	83 Laps	Running
Jack Smith	83 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	4	5
4	Zak Best	3	3	3
5	Jake Kostecki	2	9	12
6	Will Brown	2	7	7
7	Andre Heimgartner	2	6	7
8	Garry Jacobson	2	3	4
9	Jack Smith	1	6	14
10	Chris Pither	1	5	10
11	Thomas Randle	1	4	7
12	Nick Percat	1	3	5
13	Chaz Mostert	1	2	4
14	Bryce Fullwood	1	1	8
15	Mark Winterbottom	1	1	3
16	Tim Slade	1	1	2
17	David Reynolds	0	4	6
18	Todd Hazelwood	0	3	9
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
26T	Matt Campbell	0	1	1
26T	Zane Goddard	0	1	1
27T	Cameron Waters	0	0	1
27T	Dale Wood	0	0	1
27T	Jaxon Evans	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Team	No.	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Team 18	4	6/4	7/4	8/4
2	Matt Stone Racing	4	5/4	12/4	19/4
3	Tickford Racing	9	7/9	17/9	29/9
4	Premair Racing	5	3/5	8/5	16/5
5	Cooldrive Racing	2	1/2	1/2	2/2
6	Brad Jones Racing	8	4/8	14/8	33/8
7	Erebus Racing	6	2/6	12/6	15/6
8	Walkinshaw Andretti United	5	2/6	6/6	11/6
9	Grove Racing	4	0	5/4	8/4
10	Dick Johnson Racing	4	0	5/4	5/4

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	No	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Holden	38	22/38	58/38	103/38
2	Ford	18	8/18	26/18	45/18

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.