Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: Electrical issues leaves Anton De Pasquale last at Townsville

Saturday 8 July 2023

Electrical issues leaves Anton De Pasquale last at Townsville

Anton De Pasquale picked up the 6^th last-place finish of his career when his #11 Shell V-Power Ford retired with an Electrical issue after 49 of the race's 88 laps. The finish came in Anton’s 168^th start.

Anton De Pasquale is in his 6^th full-time season and the 3^rd with Dick Johnson Racing after spending 3 years with Erebus Motorsports. Anton is considered a future star and has done well so far. He was 13th in Practice 1, then plummeted to 22nd in Practice 2. He recovered to 12th in Qualifying but missed the Top 10 Shootout.

Tim Slade in the #23 Nulon Chevrolet started the race in the rear after issues in Qualifying, but by the end of Lap 1, Scott Pye in the #20 Hino Chevrolet fell to last.

On Lap 7 Mark Winterbottom in the #18 DeWalt Chevrolet spun out Nick Percat in the #2 NTI Ford. There was subsequent contact with Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Chevrolet, damaging Percat's Suspension and Steering Rack and dropping him to last. Winterbottom would cop a 15-second time penalty for the hit. Even when Anton De Pasquale in the #11 Shell V-Power Ford pitted, he stayed ahead of Percat, who would drop a lap on Lap 23, then pulled into the Garage on Lap 26, losing 9 laps in repairs.

Winterbottom would hold last for ages until Anton De Pasquale in the #11 Shell V-Power Ford had an extremely slow 2nd pitstop, his car stopping and starting several times over the next several laps. Anton pulled into the garage on Lap 50 with an Electrical issue, dropping to the last place on Lap 56 and losing 13 laps. De Pasquale would return to the pits a couple of laps later, retiring shortly afterwards.

Next to find trouble was Todd Hazelwood in the #3 Cooldrive Distribution Ford caught fire on Lap 68. He was able to get running after losing a few laps and get back to the pits to investigate, eventually sorting the issue out, costing 4 laps. Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Chevrolet from contact with Percat and David Reynolds in the #26 Penrite Ford rounded out the bottom five after Suspension issues dropped him late.

The Bottom Five

Anton De Pasquale	49 Laps	Electrical
Nick Percat	76 Laps	Running
Todd Hazelwood	84 Laps	Running
Jack Smith	87 Laps	Running
David Reynolds	88 Laps	Running

Driver Championship

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

Manufacturer Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Chevrolet	15	10/15	23/15	37/15
2	Ford	11	6/11	24/11	43/11

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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.