Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: Steering rack failure and crash leaves Reynolds last at Sydney Motorsport Park

Saturday 29 July 2023

Steering rack failure and crash leaves Reynolds last at Sydney Motorsport Park

Original by Speedcafe, edited by me.

David Reynolds picked up the 12th last-place finish of his career when his #26 Penrite Oils Ford crashed out after 31 of the race's 51 laps. The finish came in Reynolds' 424th start.

David Reynolds is a Supercars veteran and has been racing since 2009 full-time and 2007 as a co-driver. His best Championship result of 3rd in 2015. In 2021 he became infamous for lying about his vaccination status, which got him barred from several rounds of the championship. Reynolds' first full-time season was with Walkinshaw Racing, then moved to Kelly Racing for a year after only doing endurance events for 2010, then moved to Rod Nash Racing from 2011 to 2015 before he moved to Erebus Motorsports in 2016 and stayed until 2021 when he moved to Kelly Grove Racing when then became Grove racing in 2022. He was 16th in Practice 1 and then rose to 14th in Practice 2 before improving to 11th in Qualifying, barely missing out on the Top 10.

Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Chevrolet started the race in the rear after issues in Qualifying stopped him from a fast lap, but Matt Payne in the #19 Penrite Oils Ford immediately dropped to last. By the end of Lap 1, Declan Fraser in the #56 Tradie Ford had fallen to last.

Anton De Pasquale in the #11 Shell V-Power Ford pitted first on Lap 10 and dropped to last. Lap 13 saw Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Chevrolet, then Nick Percat in the #2 NTI/Mobil 1 Holden fell to last. Declan Fraser in the #56 Tradie Ford pitted and fell to last on Lap 19.

Will Davison in the #17 Shell V-Power Ford pitted and fell to last on Lap 22, and then David Reynolds in the #26 Penrite Oils Ford pitted on Lap 24 and dropped to last.

Todd Hazelwood in the #3 Cooldrive Distribution Ford was dropped with a fuel line partially attached, getting a drive-through penalty which dropped him to last.

Thomas Randle in the #55 Castrol Ford pitted a second time on Lap 31 and dropped to last, followed by Anton De Pasquale in the #11 Shell V-Powwr Ford on Lap 32.

David Reynolds in the #26 Penrite Oils Ford crashed Lap 26 and stopped near Turn 11 after a Steering Rack failure threw Reynolds into the fence, ending his race and triggering a Safety Car.

Macauley Jones in the #96 Pizza Hut Holden got turned around by Matt Payne in the #19 Penrite Oils Ford. Rounding out the Bottom Five was Matt Payne in the #19 Penrite Oils Ford, Thomas Randle in the #55 Castrol Ford, Macauley Jones in the #96 Pizza Hut Chevrolet and Declan Fraser in the #56 Tradie Ford.

The Bottom Five

David Reynolds	31 Laps	Crash
Matt Payne	51 Laps	Running
Thomas Randle	51 Laps	Running
Macauley Jones	51 Laps	Running
Declan Fraser	51 Laps	Running

Driver Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Jack Smith	2	4	6
2	Cameron Hill	2	3	5
3	Chaz Mostert	2	2	2
4	Declan Fraser	1	6	10
5	Nick Percat	1	4	5
6T	Todd Hazelwood	1	3	4
6T	Tim Slade	1	3	4
6T	David Reynolds	1	3	4
6T	Thomas Randle	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	Jack LeBrocq	0	2	2
17	Matthew Payne	0	1	4
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	Tim Blanchard Racing	1	1	3	4
3	Matt Stone Racing	2	2/2	6/2	7/2
4	Erebus Racing	2	2/2	5/2	5/2
5	Tickford Racing	4	3/4	11/4	21/4
6	Red Bull/Ampol Racing	3	2/3	4/3	5/3
7	Premair Hire Racing	2	1/2	4/2	5/2
8	Team 18 Racing	2	1/2	1/2	2/2
9	Brad Jones Racing	4	2/4	6/4	13/4
10	Penrite Racing	2	0	4/2	8/2
11	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	2/2	5/2

Manufacturer Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Ford	11	9/11	28/11	47/11
2	Chevrolet	15	9/15	26/15	43/15

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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.