Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: Contact and crash leaves Shane Van Gisbergen last at Symmonds Plains for the first time in over 3 years.

Saturday 20 May 2023

Contact and crash leaves Shane Van Gisbergen last at Symmonds Plains for the first time in over 3 years.

Shane Van Gisbergen picked up the 10th last-place finish of his career when his #97 Red Bull/Ampol Chevrolet crashed out on the opening lap of the second race at Symmonds Plains. The finish came in Van Gisbergen's 494th start.

Shane Van Gisbergen is both a veteran and a legend of the Supercars, with 3 Championships and 76 wins. He’s been dominant since he joined Red Bull Racing in 2016 after spending 3 years at Tekno Autosports and the previous five years at Stone Brothers Racing. He controversially took a step back in 2012 and left Stone Brothers Racing, then joined Tekno Autosports in 2013. He was 7th in Practice 1 then rose to 6th in Practice 2. Shane qualified 11^th.

Scott Pye in the #20 East Coast Car Rentals Chevrolet started the race in the rear, but first Andre Heimgartner in the #8 R&J Batteries Chevrolet was spun by Declan Fraser in the #56 Tradie Ford, then Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Chevrolet fell to last after getting spun at Turn 4 by James Courtney in the #5 Snowy River Caravans Ford, Courtney having been hit by someone else.

Neat the end of the first lap Shane Van Gisbergen in the #97 Red Bull/Ampol Chevrolet collided with David Reynolds in the #26 Penrite Oils Ford, sending Van Gisbergen hard into the wall and out of the race. Reynolds would lose 2 laps in repairs for a flat tire and damaged wheel.

The other retirement of the race came in the second half of the race when Declan Fraser in the #56 Tradie Ford, after spinning out Andre Heimgartner in the #8 R&J Batteries Chevrolet Turn 1 Lap 1 and got a 15-second time penalty for it, Fraser pulled back into the garage on Lap 26 with Suspension damage, losing 5 laps. They went back out but only ran 1 lap before retiring.

Thomas Randle in the $55 Castrol Ford had contact with Cameron Hill in the #35 Truck Assist Holden, causing Suspension damage that dropped him, to 22nd. Rounding out the Bottom Five was Macauley Jones in the #96 Pizza Hut Chevrolet.

The Bottom Five

Shane Van Gisbergen	0 Laps	Crash
Declan Fraser	26 Laps	Suspension
David Reynolds	40 Laps	Running
Thomas Randle	42 Laps	Running
Macauley Jones	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	3	4
4	Jack Smith	1	2	4
5	Thomas Randle	1	2	3
6T	Shane Van Gisbergen	1	2	2
6T	Mark Winterbottom	1	1	2
8T	Todd Hazelwood	1	1	2
8T	Chaz Mostert	1	1	1
10	Broc Feeney	1	1	1
11	James Courtney	0	3	4
12	Macauley Jones	0	2	5
13	Jack LeBrocq	0	2	2
14	David Reynolds	0	2	2
15T	Anton De Pasquale	0	1	3
15T	Tim Slade	0	1	2
15T	Will Brown	0	1	1
15T	Brodie Kostecki	0	1	1
19T	James Golding	0	0	2
19T	Andre Heimgartner	0	0	2
21T	Matthew Payne	0	0	1
21T	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	7/4	14/4
3T	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	2/2	4/2	5/2
5	Red Bull/Ampol Racing	2	2/2	3/2	3/2
6	Brad Jones Racing	4	1/4	4/4	9/4
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	3/2	4/2
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	7/14	18/14	28/14
2	Ford	11	4/11	15/11	27/11

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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.