Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: July 2023

Saturday 29 July 2023

Declan Fraser takes the lead of the last-place championship after falling off the jacks at Sydney Motorspor

Declan Fraser picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his career when his #56 Tradie Ford finished under power on the lead lap in the second race at Sydney Motorsport Park. The finish came in Fraser's 22nd start.

Declan Fraser is a rookie in the 2023 Repco Australian Supercar Championship. He has one Top 10 result this year and one last year, 8th at Bathurst. He was slowest in Practice 1 but rose to 19th in Practice 2 and then dropped to 22nd in Qualifying.

Nick Percat in the #2 NTI/Mobil 1 Ford started the race in the rear, but immediately Will Brown in the #9 Coca-Cola Chevrolet and David Reynolds in the #26 Penrite Oils Ford, Mark Winterbottom in the #18 DeWalt Chevrolet and Anton De Pasquale in the #11 Shell V-Power Ford, sending Brown to last. Brown would pass Reynolds back on Lap 3.

Reynolds held last until Lap 9 when he passed teammate Matt Payne in the #19 Penrite Oils Ford.

Pitstops began on Lap 16, and Anton De Pasquale in the #11 Shell V-Power Ford fell to last place in his pitstop. A slow pitstop put Will Brown to last on Lap 17. Lap 18 saw Cameron Hill in the #35 Truck Assist Chevrolet had a horrific stop that dropped him to last. Declan Fraser in the #56 Tradie Ford then pitted on Lap 20 and had an even more shocking pitstop somehow when the car came off the jacks without the left-front wheel on dropping him to last. He stays there for the rest of the race.

Most of the rest of the Bottom Five were determined by pit stop failures. Rounding out the Bottom Five was Cameron Hill in the #35 Truck Assist Chevrolet, Matt Payne in the #19 Penrite Oils Ford, Thomas Randle in the $#55 Castrol Ford and Todd Hazelwood in the #3 Cooldrive Distribution Ford lost 16 seconds after a wheel gun failure on his pitstop.

The Bottom Five

Declan Fraser	31 Laps	Running
Cameron Hill	31 Laps	Running
Matt Payne	31 Laps	Running
Thomas Randle	31 Laps	Running
Todd Hazelwood	31 Laps	Running

Driver Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Declan Fraser	2	7	11
2T	Jack Smith	2	4	6
2T	Cameron Hill	2	4	6
4	Chaz Mostert	2	2	2
5	Nick Percat	1	4	5
6T	Todd Hazelwood	1	3	5
6T	Thomas Randle	1	3	5
8T	Tim Slade	1	3	4
8T	David Reynolds	1	3	4
10	Shane Van Gisbergen	1	2	2
11T	Mark Winterbottom	1	1	2
11T	Cameron Waters	1	1	2
13	Broc Feeney	1	1	1
14	James Courtney	0	3	6
15	Macauley Jones	0	2	6
16	Matthew Payne	0	2	5
17	Jack LeBrocq	0	2	2
18	Anton De Pasquale	0	1	3
19	Will Davison	0	1	2
20T	Will Brown	0	1	1
20T	Brodie Kostecki	0	1	1
22T	James Golding	0	0	2
22T	Andre Heimgartner	0	0	2
24	Zane Goddard	0	0	1

Team Championship

Pos	Team	Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	3/2	6/2	7/2
2	Tickford Racing	4	4/4	12/4	23/4
3	Tim Blanchard Racing	1	1	3	5
4	Matt Stone Racing	2	2/2	7/2	8/2
5	Erebus Racing	2	2/2	5/2	5/2
6	Red Bull/Ampol Racing	3	2/3	4/3	5/3
7	Premair Hire Racing	2	1/2	4/2	5/2
8	Brad Jones Racing	4	2/4	6/4	13/4
9	Team 18 Racing	2	1/2	1/2	2/2
10	Penrite Racing	2	0	5/2	9/2
11	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	2/2	5/2

Manufacturer Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Ford	11	10/11	30/11	51/11
2	Chevrolet	15	9/15	27/15	44/15

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.