Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: May 2023

Saturday 20 May 2023

Engine issues leave Slade last at Symmonds Plains

Original by Auto Action.

Tim Slade picked up the 11th last-place finish of his career when his #23 Nulon Chevrolet finished under power, 4 laps down in the final race at Symmonds Plains. The finish came in Slade's 414th start.

Tim Slade is another veteran, in his 14th full-time season. After his first Season at Paul Morris Motorsports, he moved to James Rosenberg racing for four seasons. He moved to Walkinshaw Racing for 2 seasons, then moved to Brad Jones Racing for 4 Seasons, but lost his ride to Todd Hazelwood in 2020. He would return in 2021 and 2022 for Tim Blanchard racing, then moved to Premair Hire Racing for the 2023 season. He was 22nd in Practice 1 but rocketed to 9th in Practice 2. Slade improved further to 5th in Qualifying.

Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Chevrolet started the race in the rear and held last early, battling with Declan Fraser in the #56 Tradie Ford until Lap 7 when Fraser got spun around by Smith's teammate Macauley Jones in the #96 Pizza Hut Chevrolet, dropping him to last.

Shortly afterwards, pitstops began and Matt Payne in the #19 Penrite Oils Ford pitted and fell to last. Lap 11 saw Nick Percat in the #2 NTI Ford pit for a long time with a Brake Pedal Pad issue, dropping him to last. Todd Hazelwood in the #3 Cooldrive Distribution Ford pitted and fell to last on Lap 19 after wheel problems.

Hazelwood would hold last until Lap 33. Tim Slade in the #23 Nulon Chevrolet was running inside the Top 10 when the Engine started to fail. He rapidly dropped back and was last by Lap 33 and finished 4 laps down. Rounding out the Bottom Five was James Courtney in the #5 Snowy River Caravans Ford after a difficult race and Matt Payne in the #20 Penrite Oils Ford after a penultimate lap puncture.

The Bottom Five

Tim Slade	38 Laps	Running
Todd Hazelwood	42 Laps	Running
Nick Percat	42 Laps	Running
James Courtney	42 Laps	Running
Matthew Payne	42 Laps	Running

Driver Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Cameron Hill	2	3	4
2	Declan Fraser	1	4	7
3	Nick Percat	1	4	5
4	Jack Smith	1	2	4
5T	Thomas Randle	1	2	3
5T	Tim Slade	1	2	3
5T	Todd Hazelwood	1	2	3
8	Shane Van Gisbergen	1	2	2
9	Mark Winterbottom	1	1	2
10T	Chaz Mostert	1	1	1
10T	Broc Feeney	1	1	1
12	James Courtney	0	3	5
13	Macauley Jones	0	2	5
14T	Jack LeBrocq	0	2	2
14T	David Reynolds	0	2	2
16	Anton De Pasquale	0	1	3
17T	Will Brown	0	1	1
17T	Brodie Kostecki	0	1	1
19T	James Golding	0	0	2
19T	Andre Heimgartner	0	0	2
19T	Matthew Payne	0	0	2
22	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	2	3
3T	Tickford Racing	4	2/4	7/4	15/4
3T	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	2/2	5/2	6/2
5	Red Bull/Ampol Racing	2	2/2	3/2	3/2
6	Team 18 Racing	2	1/2	1/2	1/2
7	Premair Hire Racing	2	1/2	3/2	4/2
8	Brad Jones Racing	4	1/4	4/4	9/4
9	Penrite Racing	2	0	3/2	5/2
10	Erebus Racing	2	0	1	1
11	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	1/2	3/2

Manufacturer Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Chevrolet	14	8/14	19/14	29/14
2	Ford	11	4/11	17/11	31/11

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.