Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: September 2024

Sunday 15 September 2024

Engine failure leaves Stanaway and Wood last at Sandown

Original by Auto Action, edited by me.

Richie Stanaway picked up the 6th last-place finish of his career, while Dale Wood picked up the 5th last-place finish when their #26 Penrite Oils Ford retired with Engine failure after 24 of the race's 154 laps. The finish came in Stanaway's 88th start and Dale Wood's 166th start.

Richie is one of five drivers who started full-time in 2018. Internationally, Richie is the most well-known of the five drivers. Locally, Richie has been in and out the most. This year is only Stanaway's 2nd full-time season, his only other full-time season being his rookie year. He raced for Tickford Racing in 2018 and moved to Garry Rodgers Motorsport in 2019. However, his attitude would cause him to be benched twice during the season, and eventually, he would be let go in 2020. Stanaway would return for endurance racing in 2022 and 2023 before securing a full-time drive for Grove Racing in 2024. Unfortunately, Stanaway would struggle to be competitive compared to Matt Payne and will be replaced in 2025 by Kai Allen. Dale Wood has largely been a Co-Driver but did run 4 full-time seasons, two seasons with Britek Racing, one season with Nissan Motorsports and one with Erebus Motorsports. Wood also ran 1 majority Season with Kelly Racing. Dale Wood has run Co-Driver at Kelly Racing, Tony D'Alberto Racing, Dick Johnson Racing, and Kelly Racing, and Brad Jones Racing and this year at Grove Racing. Stanaway was 18th in Practice 1 and slid to last in Practice 2. A wet Practice 3 saw Stanaway rocket to 4th and push to fastest in Practice 4. Stanaway then qualified 8th and finished the Top 10 Shootout in 7th. Richie and Wood then plunged to 15th in the Sunday Warm-Up.

Aaron Love and Aaron Cameron in the #3 Cooldrive Distribution Ford started the race after Love crashed in Qualifying and held last initially. By the end of Lap 2, Macauley Jones #96 Pizza Hut Chevrolet fell to last. Jones would stay close to love and get back past Love on Lap 12. A few laps later, Mark Winterbottom in the #18 Club Cadet Chevrolet went off at Turn 9 and fell to last. A lap later, Brodie Kostecki in the #1 Power Play/SS Signs Chevrolet had a transponder issue, not counting one of his laps.

Thomas Randle in the #55 Castrol Ford pitted first on Lap 22, dropping down to last. Cameron Hill in the #4 SP Tools Racing and James Courtney in the #7 Snowy River Caravans Ford pitted doing a driver switch to co-driver Jack Perkins, dropping to last.

On Lap 24, Richie Stanaway in the #26 Penrite Ford suddenly stopped on the back straight with Rear Suspension issues, triggering the first Safety Car of the race, ending Stanaway's race and leaving him last.

Following Stanaway out, Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood in the #1 Power Play/SS Signs Chevrolet after a flip-flop race. First, Hazelwood aggressively moved on Jamie Whincup in the #88 Red Bull/Ampol Chevrolet in Turn 4 on Lap 40, causing a puncture that dropped him to 25th. They would recover but would be set back by a 15-second time penalty for spinning wheels in the pitstop. Just as they were about to get into the Top 10, Brodie Kostecki in the #1 Powerplay/SS Signs Chevrolet slowed and stopped at Turn 6 on Lap 141 with a terminal Electrical issue, triggering the fifth Safety Car of the race, leaving them 25th.

Rounding out the Bottom Five Kai Allen and Will Davison in the #17 Shell V-Power Ford, after a deflating right-rear tyre coming into the last corner, causing him to suddenly slow. Immediately behind, Dylan O-Keefe in the #10 Bendix Chevrolet ran into him, turning him around. Immediately behind them, Dean Fiore in the #50 SCT Logistics Chevrolet also made contact, heavily damaging Allen and O'Keefe, sending both cars to the garage and triggering a Course Caution. O'Keefe and Percat would lose 8 laps in repairs while Allen and Davison would fall 38 laps down repairing the car. The final Bottom Five position would be filled by Jaxon Evans in the #50 SCT Logistics Chevrolet after going into the sand at Turn 9 on Lap 89, triggering the fourth Safety Car of the race. Evans would be towed back to the pits, losing 6 laps in retrieval and repairs.

The Bottom Five

Richie Stanaway/Dale Wood	22 Laps	Engine
Brodie Kostecki/Todd Hazelwood	140 Laps	Electrical
Will Davison/Kai Allen	118 Laps	Running
Nick Percat/Dylan O’Keefe	147 Laps	Running
Jaxon Evans/Dean Fiore	148 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Jaxon Evans	3	4	9
2	Brodie Kostecki	2	5	5
3T	Jack LeBrocq	2	4	5
3T	Ryan Wood	2	4	4
5T	Anton De Pasquale	2	2	3
5T	Richie Stanaway	2	2	3
7	Aaron Love	1	6	12
8	David Reynolds	1	3	3
9	Tim Slade	1	2	2
10T	Cooper Murray	1	1	2
10T	Matt Payne	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
19	Nick Percat	0	1	4
20	Bryce Fullwood	0	1	3
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
28	Macauley Jones	0	0	7
29T	Broc Feeney	0	0	1
29T	Dylan O’Keefe	0	0	1
29T	Dean Fiore	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Team	Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Erebus Motorsports	4	4/4	9/4	10/4
2	Penrite Racing	4	4/4	4/4	6/4
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	22/8
6	Red Bull Racing	6	2/6	2/6	3/6
7	Blanchard Racing Team	4	1/4	11/4	18/4
8	Team 18 Racing	4	1/4	5/4	5/4
9	Premair Nulon Racing	4	1/4	3/4	4/4
10	Tickford Racing	6	0	7/6	8/6
11	Matt Stone Racing	4	0	3/4	11/4

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Ford	22	9/22	32/22	41/22
2	Chevrolet	30	11/30	28/30	52/30

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.