Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: April 2023

Sunday 30 April 2023

Gear Shifter failure leaves Randle last at Wanneroo

Thomas Randle picked up the 2^nd last-place finish of his career when his #55 Castrol Ford retired with Gear Shifter issues after 32 of the race’s 42 laps. The finish came in Randle’s 61^st start.

Thomas Randle is a fighter. He won the Super2 in 2020 despite a Testicular Cancer diagnosis. In 2022, he finally made his debut in the main game. He’s racing for Tickford Racing, and this year is in his 2^nd full-time season. He was 19^th in the 90-minute Practice and Qualified 8^th.

Mark Winterbottom in the #600 DeWalt Chevrolet started the race in the rear, but Declan Fraser in the #56 Tradie Ford plummeted to last after getting turned by Jack LeBrocq in the #34 Truck Assist Chevrolet, sending Fraser to last.

Lap 11 Tim Slade in the #23 Nulon Chevrolet pitted and fell to last, followed by Macauley Jones on Lap 12 in the #96 Pizza Hut Gold Chevrolet when he pitted.

Thomas Randle in the #55 Castrol Ford pulled off on Lap 18 with Gear Shifter issues, dropping to last having lost 5 laps in repairs. He stayed out for a few more laps, pulled off again, then rejoined, 10 laps down, on the final lap, but failed to be classified.

Jack LeBrocq in the #34 Truck Assist Chevrolet copped 15 seconds for spinning Fraser, leaving him 2nd last. Rounding out the Bottom 5 was Declan Fraser in the #56 Tradie Ford, Andre Heimgartner in the #8 R&J Batteries Chevrolet and Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Chevrolet.

The Bottom Five

Thomas Randle	32 Laps	Gear Shifter
Jack LeBrocq	42 Laps	Running
Declan Fraser	42 Laps	Running
Andre Heimagrtner	42 Laps	Running
Jack Smith	42 Laps	Running

Driver Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Cameron Hill	2	3	4
2	Declan Fraser	1	3	5
3	Nick Percat	1	3	4
4	Jack Smith	1	2	4
4T	Thomas Randle	1	2	2
6T	Mark Winterbottom	1	1	2
6T	Todd Hazelwood	1	1	2
8T	Broc Feeney	1	1	1
8T	James Courtney	0	2	3
10	Macauley Jones	0	2	3
11	Jack LeBrocq	0	2	2
12T	Anton De Pasquale	0	1	3
12T	Tim Slade	0	1	2
12T	Shane Van Gisbergen	0	1	1
12T	David Reynolds	0	1	1
12T	Will Brown	0	1	1
17	James Golding	0	0	2
18T	Andre Heimgartner	0	0	2
18T	Matthew Payne	0	0	1
18T	Cameron Waters	0	0	1

Team Championship

Pos	Team	Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Matt Stone Racing	2	2/2	6/2	6/2
2	Tim Blanchard Racing	1	1	1	1
3T	Tickford Racing	4	2/4	5/4	10/4
3T	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	1/2	3/2	4/2
5	Brad Jones Racing	4	1/4	4/4	7/4
6	Red Bull/Ampol Racing	2	1/2	2/2	2/2
7	Team 18 Racing	2	1/2	1/2	1/2
8	Premair Hire Racing	2	0	2/2	3/2
9	Penrite Racing	2	0	2/2	3/2
10	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	1/2	3/2

Manufacturer Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Ford	11	4/11	12/11	22/11
2	Chevrolet	14	5/14	15/14	23/14

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.