Repco Australia Superlastcar Championship: Engine failure leaves Wall and Pither last at the Mountain

Sunday, 11 October 2015

Engine failure leaves Wall and Pither last at the Mountain

David Wall picked up his 10th last-place finish of his career, while Chris Pither picked up his 3rd last-place finish of his career when their #34 Wilson Security/Valvoline Volvo retired with Engine failure after 15 of the race's 161 laps. The finish came in Wall's 66th round start, and in Pither's 16th round start.

The field had initially 27 entries in the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 however after the single largest non-fatal crash in Bathurst history, where Chazz Mostert in the #6 Pepsi Max Ford glanced the wall at the dipper, firing car 6 at 170kph into the outside wall, then an even harder hit into the other wall, destroying car #6, forcing Pepsi Max racing to withdraw the car. Mostert suffered a broken leg and a broken wrist in the crash, and 7 marshals, who's stand was destroyed by Mostert's car as the most of car #6 took out the marshal's stand and the catch fencing, were also injured. This crash reduced the field to 26.

Now going to the start of the race, Ashley Walsh in the #4 Wendy's Mercedes started the race in the rear, however Renee Gracie in the #200 Harvey Norman/HP/Fujitsu Ford fell to the rear after pitting before the green flag and having to wait for all the other cars to pass, and had fallen 10 seconds behind 25th by lap 7.

First car to pit was the Dean Fiore in the #23, complete with a driver's change to Michael Caruso, dropping Caruso to the rear. After a pit-stop Tim Blanchard in the #3 Cooldrive Holden fell behind Caruso on lap 11. Lap 14 saw Mark Winterbottom in the #5 Pepsi Max Ford fall to the rear.

On lap 15 Catastrophe strikes for both David Wall and Chris Pither in the #34 Wilson Security/Valvoline Volvo and Renee Gracie and Simona De Silvestro in the #200 Harvey Norman Ford. Firstly, Wall blew his motor and Gracie, without any experience of watching and avoiding oil, hit the oil and hit the wall at Forest Elbow, triggering the first caution of the race. Eventually car #200 managed to get back going and be classified, starting lap 121 as the leaders came through the dipper on lap 161.

During the first caution, most of the field changed drivers. Next to fall out was Ant Pedersen and Andre Heimgartner in the unsponsored #111 Super Black Racing Ford, after contact with Karl Reindler in the #3 Holden sent Pedersen into the wall and brining out the second caution of the race, with car #111 dropping to 25th on lap 75. On lap 75 Tim Blanchard in the #3 Cool Drive/GB Galvnaising Holden crashed heavily at McPhillamy park and while uninjured, Blanchard's and Reindler's day was over, and he was down to 24th by lap 121.

The last 35 laps were chaotic. Firstly, Ashley Walsh and in the #4 Wendy's Mercedes crashed at the Cutting, damaging the suspension on his car, then Scott Pye and Marcos Ambrose in the #17 XBOX Ford crashed very heavily at Reed Park, near McPhillamy Park, brining out the fourth caution of the race. Pye, who was in the car at the time, suffered broken ribs in the crash. With these two retiring, they filled out the bottom five, with Renee Gracie and Simona De Silvestro overtaking Pedersen on lap 75, Blanchard on lap 116 and both Walsh and Pye when the drivers who finished the race was put ahead of the drivers who failed to finish at the end of the race.

With this victory, Craig Lowndes now has 6 Bathurst 1000 crowns, putting him on the same number as Mark Skaife, only behind Jim Richards on 7 and Peter Brock on 9.

The Bottom Five

David Wall/Chris Pither	15 Laps	Engine
Andre Heimgartnet/Ant Pedersen	35 Laps	Crash
Tim Blanchard/Karl Reindler	78 Laps	Crash
Ashley Walsh/Jack leBrocq	135 Laps	Crash
Scott Pye/Marcos Ambrose	137 Laps	Crash

Driver's Championship

Scott McLaughlin: 5

Ashley Walsh, James Moffat, Nick Percat: 3

Andre Heimgartner, Todd Kelly, David Wall: 2

Will Davison, Garth Tander, Lee Holdsworth, Chazz Mostert, Fabian Coulthard, Jason Bright, Chris Pither: 1

Team's Championship

Gary Rodgers Motorsports: 7

Erebus Motorsport: 4

Nissan Motorsports. Lucas Dumbrell Motorsports: 3

Super Black Racing, Brad Jones Racing, Jack Daniel's Racing: 2

Holden Racing Team, Charlie Schwerkolt Racing, Prodrive Racing Australia: 1

Manufacturer's Championship:

Holden, Volvo: 7

Nissan: 5

Mercedes: 4

Ford: 3

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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.