Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: First lap crash leaves Mark Winterbottom last at Albert Park

Saturday 1 April 2023

First lap crash leaves Mark Winterbottom last at Albert Park

Mark Winterbottom picked up the 8th last-place finish of his career when his #18 DeWalt Chevrolet was involved in a single-car crash that ended his race without completing a single lap of the 3rd race at Albert Park. The finish came in Winterbottom's 627th start.

Mark Winterbottom is the veteran of veterans, along with James Courtney and Will Davison. Coming into his 20th, and potentially last, full-time season. He has 1 Championship, which he won in 2015. After his first two full-time seasons with Larkham Motor Sport, he moved to spend the rest of his career until 2019 at the Factory Ford team. He switched to Team 18 in 2019, moving to a Holden. He was fastest in Practice 1 but dropped to 7th in Practice 2. He slipped further to 9th in Qualifying.

Nick Percat in the #2 NTI Ford started the race in the rear after complications from the fire in Race 4 prevented him from running a lap, but Mark Winterbottom in the #18 DeWalt Chevrolet was bumped by James Golding in the #31 Nulon Chevrolet, sending Winterbottom into the wall at Turn 5, ending his race and leaving him last.

Later that lap, James Courtney in the #5 Snowy River Caravans Ford caught fire, ending his race.

The following lap Macauley Jones in the #96 Pizza Hut Chevrolet was bumped into Anton De Pasquale in the #11 Shell V-Power Ford by Matthew Payne in the #26 Penrite Ford, sending both De Pasquale and Jones into the wall at Turn 5 and out of the race.

Rounding out his bottom five was Matthew Payne in the #19 Penrite Ford after his involvement in the De Pasquale and Jones crash caused a Pit-Lane penalty.

The Bottom Five

Mark Winterbottom	0 Laps	Crash
James Courtney	0 Laps	Fire
Macauley Jones	1 Lap	Crash
Anton De Pasquale	1 Lap	Crash
Matthew Payne		Running

Driver Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Nick Percat	1	3	3
2	Declan Fraser	1	2	2
3T	Mark Winterbottom	1	1	2
3T	Todd Hazelwood	1	1	2
5	Broc Feeney	1	1	1
6	James Courtney	0	2	3
7T	Jack Smith	0	1	2
7T	Macauley Jones	0	1	2
8T	Shane Van Gisbergen	0	1	1
8T	Jack LeBrocq	0	1	1
8T	David Reynolds	0	1	1
9	James Golding	0	0	2
10T	Tim Slade	0	0	1
10T	Cameron Hill	0	0	1
10T	Anton De Pasquale	0	0	1
10T	Matthew Payne	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	3/4	5/4
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	1/4	3/4
8	Penrite Racing	2	0	1/2	2/2
9	Team 18 Racing	2	1/2	1/2	1/2
10	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	0	1/2

Manufacturer Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Ford	11	3/11	7/11	8/11
2	Chevrolet	14	2/14	8/14	17/14

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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.