Repco Australia Superlastcar Championship: Another big crash leaves Coulthard last in Auckland

Sunday, 4 November 2018

Another big crash leaves Coulthard last in Auckland

Original by Fox Sports, edited by me

Fabian Coulthard picked up his 11th last-place finish of his career when his #12 Shell V-Power Ford was involved in a 3-car crash that ended his race after 6 of the race's 70 laps. The finish came in Coulthard's 376th start.

Fabian Coulthard is in his 15th season, including 11th full-time. He's had a bit of a penchant for big crashes, including Bathurst 2010 and New Zealand last year. Fabian was 5th in Practice 1 but fell to 14th in Practice 2. Fabian improved to 11th in Practice 3, but had a bad qualifying, and started 19th.

Simona De Silvestro in the #78 Harvey Norman/LG Super UHD TV Nissan started the race in the rear after bringing out a Red flag during qualifying, however by turn 4 Todd Hazelwood in the #35 BigMate/Optus Ford had fallen to the rear. At turn 6 Craig Lowndes in the #888 National Storage Holden was spun by Garth Tander in the #33 Wilson Security Holden, sending him to the rear.

At the end of lap 1, Mark Winterbottom in the #5 The Bottle-O/Castrol/Mercury Cider Ford pitted with a flat tire and fell to the rear.

On lap 2 there was contact between Tander, James Golding in the #34 Wilson Security Holden and Simona De Silvestro in the #78 Harvey Norman/LG Super UHD TV Nissan, half-spinning Golding and damaging the Suspension on Tander's car, sending him to the garage and to the rear, losing 7 laps in repairs. Tander pulled back into the garage on lap 45, dropping 4 more laps. Tander would finish 25^th.

Disaster strikes for Fabian Coulthard in the #12 Shell V-Power Ford on lap 6, when Richie Stanaway in the #56 Rabble.club Ford bumped Lee Holdsworth in the #18 Preston Hire/Fuchs Holden into Coulthard into the turn 10 wall, then hard into the turn 11 wall, ending Coulthard's race and almost taking Stanaway with him, triggering the first safety car of the race. Coulthard falls to last on lap 14.

Richie Stanaway and Todd Hazelwood both got drive-through penalties, Stanawy on lap 16 for the incident with Holdsworth and Coulthard and, Hazelwood on lap 17 for overtaking the Safety car.

Stanaway and Hazelwood would finish 23^rd and 24^th, respectively. Rounding out the Bottom Five was Jack LeBrocq in the #19 Tekno Performance/Sabtool Holden.

The Bottom Five

Fabian Coulthard	6 Laps	Crash
Garth Tander	59 Laps	Running
Todd Hazelwood	68 Laps	Running
Richie Stanaway	69 Laps	Running
Jack LeBrocq	69 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver’s Name	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	James Courtney	4	5	6
2	Michael Caruso	3	6	8
3	Todd Hazelwood	2	7	17
4	Richie Stanaway	2	7	12
5	Simona De Silvestro	2	3	11
6	Cameron Waters	2	3	5
7	Garth Tander	2	3	4
8	James Golding	1	9	11
9	Tim Blanchard	1	6	11
9	Kurt Kostecki	1	3	4
10	Jack LeBrocq	1	2	6
11	Macauley Jones	1	2	4
12T	Nick Percat	1	2	2
12T	Steve Owen	1	2	2
13	Rick Kelly	1	1	3
14T	Jamie Whincup	1	1	1
14T	Chaz Mostert	1	1	1
14T	Alex Rullo	1	1	1
14T	Jack Perkins	1	1	1
14T	Fabian Coulthard	1	1	1
15	Lee Holdsworth	0	4	10
16	Andre Heimgartner	0	4	4
17	Anton De Pasquale	0	3	5
18	Will Davison	0	2	3
19	Dean Fiore	0	2	3
20	Will Brown	0	2	2
21T	Craig Lowndes	0	1	1
21T	Shane Van Gisbergen	0	1	1
21T	David Reynolds	0	1	1
21T	Mark Winterbottom	0	1	1
21T	Tim Slade	0	1	1
21T	Scott Pye	0	1	1
21T	Richard Muscat	0	1	1
22T	Jason Bright	0	0	1
22T	Jonathon Webb	0	0	1
22T	Will Brown	0	0	1
22T	Garry Jacobson	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Team Name	# Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Walkinshaw Andretti United	4	5/4	5/2	7/4
2	Matt Stone Racing	2	1	4	9
3	Nissan Motorsports	8	8/8	18/8	31/8
4	Gary Rodgers Motorsport	4	3/4	13/4	15/4
5	Tickford Racing	8	5/8	11/8	18/8
6	Kostecki Brothers Racing	2	1/2	3/2	4/2
7	Tekno Autosports	2	1/2	2/2	7/2
8	Brad Jones Racing	8	3/8	9/8	15/8
9	Red Bull Holden Racing	4	1/4	2/4	2/4
10	DJR Team Penske Racing	4	¼	¼	¼
11	Preston Hire Racing	2	0	4/2	11/2
12	Erebus Motorsports	4	0	5/4	7/4
13	23Red Racing	2	0	2/2	4/2
14	Craig Lowndes Racing	2	0	1/2	½

Manufacturer’s Championship

Manufacturer	# Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Nissan	8	6/8	15/8	28/8
Ford	12ish	9/12	11/12	20/12
Holden	32ish	15/32	55/32	87/32

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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.