Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: Highest of Highs to Lowest of Lows, as Disqualification nets Broc Feeney last-place at Newcastle.

Friday 10 March 2023

Highest of Highs to Lowest of Lows, as Disqualification nets Broc Feeney last-place at Newcastle.

Broc Feeney picked up his 1st Last-Place finish of his career when his #88 Red Bull Ampol Chevrolet was disqualified for a Technical Breach after -95 of the race's 95 laps. The finish came in Feeney's 36th start.

Broc Feeney is a prodigy of the series. His first race was bathurst 2021 where he teamed up with Russell Ingall. Sadly he hit the wall at Reed Park late in the race, and DNF'ed.

He replaced Jamie Whincup the following year, and only scored one Bottom 5 appearence when he was involved in the Big One at Surfer's Paradise, and won the final race at Adelaide.

Nick Percat picked up the 14th last-place finish of his career and the first of the Generation 3 era when his #2 NTI Ford retired with Brake failure after 50 of 95 laps. The finish came in his 284th start.

Nick Percat has been running for 9 years full-time, though Percat has a few years of part-time experience before going full-time. He raced his first full-time at James Rosenberg Racing before moving to Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport for 2 years, though the first year with Lucas Dumbrell Motorsports not being full-time, as he missed the final 6 races. He then moved to Brad Jones Racing for five years and is now in his 2nd season at Walkinshaw Andretti United, who moved to Ford in the Off-Season. He was 4th in Practice 1, then fell to 14th in Practice 2. He then jumped to 6th in Practice 3 but plummeted to 21st in Qualifying.

Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Chevrolet was the slowest qualifier, just over a tenth of a second slower than Declan Fraser in the #56 Tradie Ford. The gap from 2nd to 4th was just .0018 of a second, with the whole Top 10 separated by just under 4-tenths.and held last, 10.7 seconds off the leaders by the end of Lap 1.

Lap 2 saw Anton De Pasquale in the #11 Shell V-Power Ford spun out by Todd Hazelwood in the #3 Cooldrive Ford, resulting in Anton falling to last.

Transponder issues meant that for 4 laps, James Courtney in the #5 Snowy River Caravans Ford was last, and briefly, Nick Percat in the #2 NTI Ford was leading. Courtney would become a leader due to another transponder issue.

Anton held last until pitstops started on Lap 15. Bryce Fullwood, racing the #14 Middy's Electrical Chevrolet, pitted and fell to last, which he would cold for a considerable period, with Anton De Pasquale narrowly avoiding dropping to last on his Lap 22 pitstop.

Todd Hazelwood in the #3 Cooldrive Ford then pitted on Lap 24 and dropped behind Fullwood, losing a Lap in the process. Lap 28 saw Hazelwood back on the lead lap, while Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Chevrolet pitted and fell to last.

Nick Percat in the #2 NTI Ford started reporting Brake failure towards the end of his 2nd stint. Percat would pull into the garage on Lap 50, and retire shortly afterwards, dropping to the last Lap 55.

Percat would be the only race retirement, with the Bottom Five being rounded out by Tim Slade in the #400 Nulon Chevrolet when he entered the pits for his first stop. The pit crew struggled to get the right-front wheel off and spent almost 4 minutes in the pits, losing 2 laps and dropping to last. A Mechanical Black Flag for a flailing body panel put Slade further behind. Slade would continue to drift back, eventually finishing 5 laps down.

Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Chevrolet was next, 3 laps down, then Cameron Hill in the #35 Truck Assist Chevrolet had an air lock issue that caused insufficient fuel to be put into the car, forcing a 3rd pitstop. Hill took the stop on Lap 82, and Macauley Jones in the #96 Pizza Hut Chevrolet, who had a couple of incidents during the race and finished a lap down.

A Double Disqualification for Shane Van Gisbergen in the #97 Red Bull/Ampol Chevrolet and Broc Feeney in the #88 Red Bull/Ampol sent both drivers to the rear of the field, also inverting their lap counts.

The Bottom Five

Broc Feeney	-95 Laps	Disqualified
Shane Van Gisbergen	-95 Laps	Disqualified
Nick Percat	50 Laps	Brakes
Tim Slade	90 Laps	Running
Jack Smith	92 Laps	Running

Driver Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Broc Feeney	1	1	1
2T	Shane Van Gisbergen	0	1	1
2T	Nick Percat	0	1	1
4T	Tim Slade	0	0	1
4T	Jack Smith	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	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	0	1/2	1/2
3	Premair Hire Racing	2	0	0	1/2
4	Brad Jones Racing	4	0	0	1/4

Manufacturer Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Ford	11	1/11	1/11	1/11
2	Chevrolet	14	0/14	2/14	4/14

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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.