Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship

Saturday 26 October 2024

The Big One on the First Lap leaves Anton last on the Gold Coast

Anton De Pasquale picked up the 9th last-place finish of his career when his #11 Shell V-Power Ford was taken out in a 14-car pileup without completing a single lap of the final race of the Boost Mobile 500. The finish came in Anton's 166th start and moved Anton to 3rd in the 2024 Repco Australian Superlastcar Championship, the third driver to record 3 last-place finishes this year.

Anton De Pasquale is in his 7th full-time Season and is one of the five drivers who came through in 2018 alongside Richie Stanaway, Jack LeBrocq, Todd Hazelwood and James Golding. Technically, Anton is one of only two drivers who have had a ride through his seven years, with Stanaway and Golding in their second entry into the main game, which Hazelwood was called up at the last minute to Erebus Motorsports to cover Brodie Kostecki after the latter stopped racing unexpectedly. Kostecki would return in Round 3, leaving Hazelwood on the outer.

Aaron Love in the #3 Cooldrive Distribution Ford started the race in the rear, but at turn 11, The Big one happened. It began when Anton De Pasquale in the #11 Shell V-Power Ford pushed Ryan Wood in the #2 Mobile 1/Truck Assist Chevrolet into the tyres. Anton was then turned into the fence by James Courtney in the #7 Snowy River Caravans Ford, who was also served by David Reynolds in the #20 Tradie Chevrolet. In the aftermath, another ten cars were involved, including all 4 Brad Jones Racing cars, the two Blanchard Racing Team cars, the two Matt Stone Racing cars, plus Tim Slade in the #23 Nulon Chevrolet, and Will Davison in the #17 Shell V-Power Ford. Anton was eliminated on the spot, while Courtney and Percat pulled into the garage with heavy damage on laps 2 and 6, respectively. Percat lost 4 laps in repairs, while Courtney lost 9.

The remainder of the Bottom Five fell to Ryan Wood in the #2 Mobile 1/Truck Assist Chevrolet and Will Davison in the #17 Shell V-Power Ford after a very poor pitstop on Lap 58.

The Bottom Five

Anton De Pasquale	0 Laps	Crash
James Courtney	75 Laps	Running
Nick Percat	81 Laps	Running
Ryan Wood	83 Laps	Running
Will Davison	84 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Jack LeBrocq	3	5	6
2	Jaxon Evans	3	4	9
3	Anton De Pasquale	3	3	4
4	Brodie Kostecki	2	5	5
5	Ryan Wood	2	5	6
6T	Matt Payne	2	2	3
6T	Richie Stanaway	2	2	3
8	Aaron Love	1	6	14
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	5	8
15	Thomas Randle	0	4	4
16	Cameron Hill	0	3	5
17	Nick Percat	0	2	5
18	Will Davison	0	2	3
19	Cameron Waters	0	2	2
20	Bryce Fullwood	0	1	5
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	5	5/5	10/5	11/5
3	Shell V-Power Racing	4	3/4	6/4	8/4
4	Walkinshaw Andretti United	4	2/4	6/4	7/4
5	Brad Jones Racing	8	3/8	6/8	25/8
6	Red Bull Racing	6	2/6	2/6	3/6
7	Blanchard Racing Team	4	1/4	12/4	22/4
8	Team 18 Racing	4	1/4	7/4	7/4
9	Premair Nulon Racing	4	1/4	3/4	4/4
10	Matt Stone Racing	4	0	5/4	13/4
11	Tickford Racing	6	0	7/6	8/6
12	Matt Chada Racing	2	0	1	1

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Ford	22	11/22	36/22	49/22
2	Chevrolet	30	12/30	33/30	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.