Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: September 2023

Sunday 17 September 2023

Tire failure and crash leaves David Reynolds and Garth Tander last at Sandown.

Original by Sandown, edited by me.

David Reynolds and Garth Tander both picked up the 13th last-place finish of their careers when their #26 Penrite Ford crashed out after 18 of the race's 159 laps. The finish came in Reynolds' 429th start and Tander's 634th start. This is Reynolds’ second last-place finish of the season.

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. Meanwhile, Garth Tander retired several years ago, in a career that included over 600 starts, 57 wins, 31 Poles and 1 Championship in 2007. He was forced into retirement by Garry Rodgers in 2019, then moved to Triple 8 Race Engineering in 2019 as co-driver. In 2023, Tander moved to Grove Racing to co-drive with David Reynolds. They were 12th in Practice 1 then plunged to 22nd in Practice 2. They jumped to 13th in Practice 3, then rose further to 6th in Practice 4. Reynolds qualified 6^th but slipped to 9^th in the top 10 shootout.

Aaron Love in the #7 Racer Industries Ford started the race in the rear, but quickly, Bryce Fullwood in the #14 Middy's Electrical Chevrolet fell to last. On lap 9 Zak Best in the #5 Snowy River Caravans Ford went off the road between Turns 1 and 2 after bouncing off Aaron Love and fell to last, over 10 seconds behind Aaron Love.

Love remained last until Lap 18 when Garth Tander in the #26 Penrite Ford lost a left-rear wheel coming through Turn 6, crashing hard, triggering the first Safety Car of the race. The rear wheel smashed into the rear boot of James Moffat's #6 Monster Energy Ford, breaking the rear wing. The crash ended the #19's race, leaving Reynolds and Tander last.

Next out was Cameron Hill in the #35 Truck Assist Chevrolet went off on Lap 139 at Turn 9 after a steering failure, triggering the second Safety Car of the race. Hill would be pulled from the sand but would pull into the garage and retire shortly afterwards.

Rounding out the Bottom Five was Garry Jacobson in the #55 Castrol Ford after blowing a Power Steering belt on Lap 50, sending the #55 to the garage and losing 13 laps in repairs, Aaron Love in the #7 Racer Industries Ford and Nick Percat in the #2 NTI Ford.

The Bottom Five

David Reynolds/Garth Tander	18 Laps	Crash
Cameron Hill/Jaylyn Robotham	137 Laps	Steering
Thomas Randle/Garry Jacobson	145 Laps	Running
Aaron Love/Jake Kostecki	156 Laps	Running
Nick Percat/Fabian Coulthard	157 Laps	Running

Driver Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Cameron Hill	3	6	8
2	Declan Fraser	2	7	11
3	Jack Smith	2	5	8
4	David Reynolds	2	4	5
5T	Chaz Mostert	2	2	2
5T	Broc Feeney	2	2	2
7T	Nick Percat	1	4	6
7T	Thomas Randle	1	4	6
9	Tim Slade	1	4	5
10	Todd Hazelwood	1	3	5
11	Jack LeBrocq	1	3	3
12T	Mark Winterbottom	1	2	3
12T	Cameron Waters	1	2	3
14T	Shane Van Gisbergen	1	2	2
14T	Brodie Kostecki	1	2	2
15	Garth Tander	1	1	1
16	James Courtney	0	3	6
17	Macauley Jones	0	2	7
18	Matthew Payne	0	2	5
19	Will Brown	0	2	2
20T	Anton De Pasquale	0	1	3
20T	James Golding	0	1	3
20T	Will Davison	0	1	3
23	Bryce Fullwood	0	1	2
24T	Jaylyn Robotham	0	1	1
24T	Garry Jacobson	0	1	1
26T	Andre Heimgartner	0	0	2
26T	Scott Pye	0	0	2
28T	Zane Goddard	0	0	1
28T	Aaron Love	0	0	1
28T	Jake Kostecki	0	0	1
28T	Fabian Coulthard	0	0	1

Team Championship

Pos	Team	Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Matt Stone Racing	4	4/4	11/4	12/4
2	Walkinshaw Andretti United	4	3/4	6/4	9/4
3	Tickford Racing	8	4/8	15/8	26/8
4	Penrite Racing	4	2/4	7/4	11/4
5	Tim Blanchard Racing	4	1/2	3/2	7/2
6	Erebus Racing	4	2/4	6/4	6/4
7	Red Bull/Ampol Racing	6	3/6	5/6	6/6
8	Premair Hire Racing	4	1/4	5/4	7/4
9	Brad Jones Racing	8	2/8	8/8	18/8
10	Team 18 Racing	4	1/4	2/4	4/4
11	Dick Johnson Racing	4	0	2/4	6/4

Manufacturer Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Ford	24	12/24	35/24	61/24
2	Chevrolet	30	12/30	37/30	59/30

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.