Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: Turn 8 claims another victim as James Golding finishes last in Adelaide

Saturday 3 December 2022

Turn 8 claims another victim as James Golding finishes last in Adelaide

Original by Supercars, edited by me.

James Golding picked up the 4th last place of his career when his #31 Subway Holden was involved in a single-car crash that ended his race after 11 of the race's 78 laps. The finish came in Golding's 99th start.

James Golding's been the replacement for Garry Jacobson at Premair Hire Racing after the latter parted ways after the Hidden Valley Round. Since then Golding has shown why he was selected to replace Jacobson, putting together some solid results including two top-10 finishes. Golding was 21st in Practice 1 but skyrocketed to 9th in Practice 2. He then improved further and made the Top 10 shootout, starting 7th.

Then Practice 3 came around and the top 10 shootout, which should have stayed a top 10 shootout but more on that later, Thomas Randle in the #55 Castrol Ford crashed hard at the infamous Turn 8. He missed out on participating in the Top 10 Shootout by less than 30 seconds, reducing it to a Top 9 shootout. Golding initially qualified 7th but was elevated to 6th when David Reynolds in the #26 Penrite Ford was disqualified for a rear wing infringement.

Starting last for this race was Shane Van Gisbergen in the #97 Red Bull/Ampol Holden after going off at the final corner on his hot lap in Qualifying, but off the line, he relegated Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Holden to last. Smith would battle for a few laps with teammate Macauley Jones in the #96 TRG Transport Holden, however, would lose 13 laps in the Garage on Lap 5 after suffering a Steering failure and crashing, possibly at Turn 10 judging by how he went off at 11. Smith would lose 4 additional laps late in the race but would complete enough to be classified.

By the time Smith returned to the track, Golding was already out of the race.

Sitting just inside the Top 10, Golding hit the wall at the infamous Turn 8 on Lap 7, sending him to the garage for the vast majority of the race. He dropped to last on Lap 23, and would briefly return to the track in the final laps, 60 laps down, but would officially retire with about 5 laps to go.

Lap 37 was where the chaos started when Superlastcar leader Jack LeBrocq in the #34 Truck Assist Holden crashed at Turn 11, bringing out the first Safety Car of the race. By this point Jake Kostecki in the #56 Tradie Ford, David Reynolds in the #26 Penrite Ford and Thomas Randle in the #55 Castrol Ford were in the last three positions. Jack LeBrocq would displace Kostecki, losing 3 laps in repairs, but would eventually work his way out of the Bottom 5.

Lap 50 saw the 2nd Safety Car of the race when Shane Van Gisbergen in the #97 Red Bull/Ampol Holden crashed heavily at Turn 11, suffering significant damage to the front. On the restart Cameron Waters in the #6 Monster Energy Ford ran wide at Turn 4, then clouted into Todd Hazelwood in the #35 Truck Assist Holden, sending the #35 into the wall, and was subsequently collected by Will Brown in the #9 Boost Mobile Holden. This clash would end Hazelwood's race and leave Will Brown in the Bottom 5. During the Safety Car, and for a while afterwards, both Shane Van Gisbergen and Will Brown would pull into the garage, both losing 13 laps in repairs. Brown would also lose 4 more laps late, and a late-race penalty would see Brown fall behind Jack Smith in the running order.

Thanks to a late race Power Steering failure by Scott Pye in the #20 Toyota Forklifts Holden resulting in a DNF, Van Gisbergen narrowly avoided a Bottom 5 appearance.

The Bottom Five

James Golding	11 Laps	Crash
Todd Hazelwood	52 Laps	Crash
Scott Pye	57 Laps	Power Steering
Will Brown	61 Laps	Running
Jack Smith	61 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Jack LeBrocq	5	9	11
2	Scott Pye	5	7	7
3	James Courtney	3	4	5
4	Zak Best	3	3	3
5	Jake Kostecki	2	9	12
6	Will Brown	2	7	8
7	Andre Heimgartner	2	6	7
8	Garry Jacobson	2	3	4
9	Jack Smith	1	6	15
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
14T	Chaz Mostert	1	2	4
14T	James Golding	1	2	4
16	Bryce Fullwood	1	1	8
17	Mark Winterbottom	1	1	3
18	Tim Slade	1	1	2
19	Todd Hazelwood	0	4	10
20	David Reynolds	0	4	6
21T	Lee Holdsworth	0	2	6
21T	Macauley Jones	0	2	6
22	Brodie Kostecki	0	2	5
23	Jordan Boys	0	2	4
24	Will Davison	0	2	2
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	8/4	10/4
2	Matt Stone Racing	4	5/4	13/4	21/4
3	Tickford Racing	9	9/9	21/9	28/9
4	Premair Racing	5	4/5	10/5	18/5
5	Brad Jones Racing	8	3/8	14/8	30/8
6	Cooldrive Racing	2	1/2	1/2	2/2
7	Erebus Racing	6	2/6	11/6	17/6
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(CHAMP)	18	11/18	36/18	49/18
2	Holden	38	22/38	63/38	109/38

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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.