Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship

Sunday 13 October 2024

Late-Race crash at the Cutting leaves Payne and Tander last at Bathurst

Original by Supercars, edited by me.

Matt Payne picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his career, while Garth Tander picked up the 15th last-place finish of his career when his #19 Penrite Oils Ford crashed out after 130 of the race's 161 laps. The finish came in Payne's 53rd start and Tander's 643rd start.

Matt Payne is in his 2nd full-time season in the main game, all of his starts being for Grove Racing. Meanwhile, Garth Tander has been a co-driver for 5 years after a 21-season career that included 57 wind, 31 pole positions, and 1 Championship in 2007. Payne was fastest in Practice 1, then Garth Tander was 11th in Practice 2. They slid to 23rd in Practice 3 as they did longer test runs, then rose to 14th in Practice 4. Matt Payne qualified fastest. Garth Tander was 10th in Practice 5, then Matt Payne finished Practice 6 in 7th, where they would start after the Top 10 Shootout. However, they would finish the Warm-Up in the sand.

Matt Chada in the #118 Boost Mobile Chevrolet started the race in the rear, but quickly James Courtney in the #7 Snowy River Caravans Ford fell to last with Handling issues. David Reynolds in the #20 Tradie Chevrolet fell to last near the end of Lap 6 with Tire issues, dropping three seconds back within 3 laps.

Matt Chada in the #118 Boost Mobile Chevrolet went off at the Chase on Lap 14, dropping him to last. Chada would go off again at Hell Corner the following lap.

Pitstops started on Lap 17, and David Reynolds pitted and dropped to last. Chada pitted on lap 17 and changed drivers to Brad Vaughn, dropping to last and losing a lap on Lap 18.

Brad Vaughn would be spun into the fence at Forest Elbow on Lap 23, heavily damaging the front of car #118, and losing 12 laps in repairs.

As it seemed that Vaughn and Chada would finish last, Matt Payne in the #19 Penrite Oils Ford crashed out at the Cutting on Lap 131, triggering the first Safety Car of the race.

Matt Chada and Brad Vaughn would finish second last. Rounding out the Bottom Five were David Reynolds and Warren Luff in the #20 Tradie Chevrolet after splitter complications from the Friday crash, Aaron Love and Aaron Cameron in the #3 Cooldrive Distribution Ford, and Bryce Fullwood and Jaylyn Robotham in the #14 Middy's Electrical Chevrolet.

The Bottom Five

Matt Payne/Garth Tander	130 Laps	Crash
Matt Chada/Brad Vaughn	146 Laps	Running
David Reynolds/Warren Luff	159 Laps	Running
Aaron Love/Aaron Cameron	160 Laps	Running
Bryce Fullwood/Jaylyn Robotham	160 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Jaxon Evans	3	4	9
2	Brodie Kostecki	2	5	5
3	Jack LeBrocq	2	4	5
4	Ryan Wood	2	4	4
5T	Matt Payne	2	2	3
5T	Anton De Pasquale	2	2	3
5T	Richie Stanaway	2	2	3
8	Aaron Love	1	6	13
9	David Reynolds	1	4	4
10	Tim Slade	1	2	2
11	Cooper Murray	1	1	2
12T	Will Brown	1	1	1
12T	Dale Wood	1	1	1
14	James Courtney	0	4	7
15	Thomas Randle	0	4	4
16	Cameron Hill	0	2	4
17T	Cameron Waters	0	2	2
17T	Will Davison	0	2	2
19T	Nick Percat	0	1	4
19T	Bryce Fullwood	0	1	4
21T	Mark Winterbottom	0	1	2
21T	Lochie Dalton	0	1	2
21T	Andre Heimgartner	0	1	2
24T	James Golding	0	1	1
24T	Chaz Mostert	0	1	1
24T	Todd Hazelwood	0	1	1
24T	Kai Allen	0	1	1
24T	Matt Chada	0	1	1
24T	Brad Vaughn	0	1	1
24T	Warren Luff	0	1	1
31	Macauley Jones	0	0	7
32T	Broc Feeney	0	0	1
32T	Dylan O’Keefe	0	0	1
32T	Dean Fiore	0	0	1
32T	Aaron Cameron	0	0	1
32T	Jaylyn Robotham	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Team	Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Penrite Racing	4	6/4	6/4	8/4
2	Erebus Motorsports	4	4/4	9/4	10/4
3	Walkinshaw Andretti United	4	2/4	5/4	5/4
4	Shell V-Power Racing	4	2/4	5/4	6/4
5	Brad Jones Racing	8	3/8	6/8	24/8
6	Red Bull Racing	6	2/6	2/6	3/6
7	Blanchard Racing Team	4	1/4	11/4	20/4
8	Team 18 Racing	4	1/4	7/4	7/4
9	Premair Nulon Racing	4	1/4	3/4	4/4
10	Tickford Racing	6	0	7/6	8/6
11	Matt Chada Racing	2	0	1	1
12	Matt Stone Racing	4	0	3/4	11/4

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Ford	22	10/22	33/22	43/22
2	Chevrolet	30	11/30	30/30	55/30

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.