Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: March 2023

Thursday 30 March 2023

Major Brake Fire leaves Percat last, and leading, at Albert Park

Nick Percat picked up the 14th last-place finish of his career when his #2 NTI Ford retired due to fire without completing a single lap of the second race at Albert Park. The finish came in Percat's 291st start.

Nick Percat is a veteran of the sport, in his 9th full-time season and 10th where he's run the majority of the races. His three co-driver years included winning the Bathurst 1000 alongside Garth Tander in 2011. He started at James Rosenberg Racing in 2014, then moved to Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport for 2 years. He then spent the next 5 seasons at Brad Jones Racing, where he scored 2 wins. He has spent the last two years at Walkinshaw Andretti United, which has largely been a struggle.

He was 15th in Practice 1, but jumped to 9th in Practice 2, then plunged to 17th in Qualifying.

Todd Hazelwood in the #3 Cooldrive Distribution Chevrolet started the race in the rear after he was disqualified from all of Thursday's events for a Gear Ratio breach, but immediately David Reynolds in the #26 Penrite Ford is punted by Cameron Waters in the #6 Monster Energy Ford, dropping to last and triggering the first Safety Car of the race. Waters was knocked into Reynolds by teammate James Courtney in the #5 Snowy River Caravans Ford, and the latter was thrown into the Bottom 5 by a 30-second time penalty.\

At the end of Lap 1, however, Nick Percat in the #2 NTI Ford caught fire, ending his race.

Rounding out the Bottom 5 was another post-race penalty server, James Golding in the #31 Nulon Chevrolet, after an unsafe release into Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Chevrolet.

The Bottom 5

Nick Percat	0 Laps	Fire
Jack LeBrocq	5 Laps	Crash
David Reynolds	7 Laps	Running
James Courtney	8 Laps	Running
James Golding	8 Laps	Running

Driver Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Nick Percat	1	3	3
2	Declan Fraser	1	2	2
3	Todd Hazelwood	1	1	2
4	Broc Feeney	1	1	1
5T	Jack Smith	0	1	2
5T	James Courtney	0	1	2
6T	Shane Van Gisbergen	0	1	1
6T	Jack LeBrocq	0	1	1
6T	David Reynolds	0	1	1
7	James Golding	0	0	2
8T	Tim Slade	0	0	1
8T	Macauley Jones	0	0	1
8T	Cameron Hill	0	0	1
8T	Mark Winterbottom	0	0	1

Team Championship

Pos	Team	Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Tim Blanchard Racing	1	1	1	1
2	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	1/2	3/2	3/2
3	Red Bull/Ampol Racing	2	1/2	2/2	2/2
4	Tickford Racing	4	1/4	2/4	4/4
5	Premair Hire Racing	2	0	1/2	2/2
6	Matt Stone Racing	2	0	1/2	1/2
7	Brad Jones Racing	4	0	0	2/4
8	Penrite Racing	2	0	1/2	1/2

Manufacturer Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Ford	11	3/11	6/11	6/11
2	Chevrolet	14	1/14	6/14	14/14

Disqualification leaves Hazelwood last at Albert Park

Todd Hazelwood picked up the 6th last-place finish of his career when his #3 Cooldrive Distribution Ford was disqualified for a technical breach after -19 of the race's 19 laps. ~~finished under power, on the lead lap in the first race~~ at Albert Park. The finish came in Hazelwood's 170th Start.

Todd Hazelwood is in his 5th full-time season and is one of the young chargers from the same year, a field that included Anton De Pasquale, Richie Stanaway, James Golding and Jack LeBrocq. He stayed with Matt Stone Racing for his first two seasons before moving to Brad Jones Racing for two years, then in 2022 he returned to Matt Stone Racing before heading to Tim Blanchard Racing in 2023.

He was 21st in Practice 1, then dropped to 2^nd slowest of 23 in Practice 2, with two drivers missing due to crashes, Shane Van Gisbergen in the #97 Red Bull/Ampol Chevrolet and Tim Slade in the #31 Nulon Chevrolet but rose to 20^th in Qualifying.

For each race, each driver must use both a hard compound tire and a SuperSoft tire, and with the speed difference between the two and no degradation, Hard into SuperSoft was the way to go.

Tim Slade in the #23 Nulon Chevrolet started the race in the rear after a hard Practice 1 crash caused him to miss Qualifying, starting from the pits after fixing the car just 6 minutes before the race started.

Lap 2 saw Cameron Hill in the #35 Truck Assist Chevrolet pit and fall to last. On Lap 5 Declan Fraser in the #56 Tradie Ford pitted and dropped to last, 10 seconds behind Cameron Hill.

Though both Will Davison in the #17 Shell V-Power Ford and Andre Heimgartner in the #8 R&J Batteries/Club Cadet Chevrolet both pitted lap 8, they stayed ahead of Fraser.

Lap 9 saw David Reynolds in the #26 Penrite Oils Mustang, who was struggling at the back of the field, pit and drop to last, one-and-a-half seconds behind Fraser, then the following Lap Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Chevrolet pitted and fell to last a second behind Reynolds. Jack Smith would race down Declan Fraser and pass him on Lap 12, relegating Fraser to last.

Lap 18 saw Todd Hazelwood in the #3 Cooldrive Distribution Ford fall to last. His last place was super-confirmed after a Technical Breach saw him disqualified from Race 3 and Qualifying for Race 4.

Rounding out the Bottom 5 was Declan Fraser in the #56 Tradie Ford, Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Chevrolet. James Golding in the #31 Nulon Chevrolet and Mark Winterbottom in the #18 DeWalt/Fuchs Chevrolet.

The Bottom Five

Todd Hazelwood	-19 Laps	Disqualified
Declan Fraser	19 Laps	Running
Jack Smith	19 Laps	Running
James Golding	19 Laps	Running
Mark Winterbottom	19 Laps	Running

Driver Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Declan Fraser	1	2	2
2T	Broc Feeney	1	1	1
2T	Todd Hazelwood	1	1	1
3	Nick Percat	0	2	2
4	Jack Smith	0	1	2
5T	Shane Van Gisbergen	0	1	1
5T	James Courtney	0	1	1
6T	Tim Slade	0	0	1
6T	Macauley Jones	0	0	1
6T	Cameron Hill	0	0	1
6T	James Golding	0	0	1
6T	Mark Winterbottom	0	0	1

Team Championship

Pos	Team	Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Red Bull/Ampol Racing	2	1/2	2/2	2/2
2	Tickford Racing	4	1/4	2/4	2/4
3	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	0	2/2	2/2
4	Premair Hire Racing	2	0	1/2	1/2
5	Brad Jones Racing	4	0	0	2/4
6	Matt Stone Racing	2	0	0	1/2

Manufacturer Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Ford	11	1/11	3/11	3/11
2	Chevrolet	14	1/14	2/14	7/14

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.