Repco Australia Superlastcar Championship: Pit-Lane crash leaves Rick Kelly last at Adelaide

Sunday, 3 March 2019

Pit-Lane crash leaves Rick Kelly last at Adelaide

Original by Supercars and Fox Sports, screenshotted and edited by me

Rick Kelly picked up his 8th last-place finish of his career when his #15 Castrol Nissan finished under power, 16 laps down in the second, shortened to 71 laps, race at Adelaide. The finish came in Kelly's 523rd start.

The field returned to 24 after a miracle rebuild for Macauley Jones in the #21 Cooldrive Distribution Holden.

Rick Kelly has been racing in the series since 2001, though his first full-time season was in 2002. He was 2nd slowest in Practice 1, and only slightly improved to 3rd slowest in Practice 2. Practice 3 only saw him improve to 19th, and Practice 4 saw him march up to 18th. He qualified a bit better and lined up 16th.

After Power Steering issues during qualifying, Mark Winterbottom in the #18 Irwin Tools Holden started the race last. However, at turn 4, Simona De Silvestro in the #78 Harvey Norman/LG Super UHD TV Nissan out-braked herself and went down the escape road, dropping her to last.

At the end of lap 1 James Courtney in the #22 - Holden pitted and fell to the rear. Courtney held last until lap 4 when Macauley Jones in the #21 Cooldrive Distribution Holden pitted, falling to the rear.

Simona De Silvestro fall back to last on lap 6 after her 1st pitstop. Macauley Jones went to the garage on lap 7 with an electrical and fuel filler issue, losing 14 laps in repairs.

After Jack LeBrocq in the #19 Truck Assist Holden stalled at turn 11 on lap 27, triggering the first Safety Car of the race, there was chaos in the pit-lane and the last-place race was eventually decided.

Rick Kelly in the #15 Castrol Nissan was driving down the fast lane of Pit-Lane when he collided with Chazz Mostert in the #55 Supercheap Auto Ford, spinning Mostert and causing chaos in the pit-lane. The collision damaged the suspension on Kelly’s car, sending him to the garage on lap 31, the same lap Mostert was penalised. (Here is an article I wrote outlining why I think the penalty Mostert received wasn’t harsh enough). Kelly fell to last on lap 45 and returned to the track. Mostert eventually finished 15^th.

Splitting LeBrocq and Jones was Garry Jacobson in the #3 Rabble.club Nissan, who was spun into the wall by final bottom 5 position holder Fabian Coulthard in the #12 Shell V-Power Ford. Jacobson lost 4 laps in repairs, and Coulthard was given a drive-through penalty for his troubles. This combined with a lug nut problem earlier in his 2^nd stop left Coulthard the best of the bottom five.

The Bottom Five

Rick Kelly	55 Laps	Running
Macauley Jones	57 Laps	Running
Garry Jacobson	67 Laps	Running
Jack LeBrocq	68 Laps	Running
Fabian Coulthard	71 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Driver	Car #	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Scott Pye	2	1	1	1
Rick Kelly	15	1	1	1
Macauley Jones	21	0	1	1
Garry Jacobson	3	0	1	2
Cameron Waters	6	0	1	1
Lee Holdsworth	5	0	1	1
Jack LeBrocq	19	0	0	2
Fabian Coulthard	12	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Team	# Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	½	½	½
Tickford Racing	4	0	½	½
Tekno Autosports	1	0	0	2
Nissan Motorsports	4	1/4	1/2	¾
Brad Jones Racing	3	0	1/3	1/3
DJR Team Penske	2	0	0	½

Manufacturer’s Championship

Manufacturer	# Cars	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
Holden	14	1/14	1/7	3/14
Ford	6	0	1/3	1/2
Nissan	4	1/4	1/2	3/4

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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.