Repco Australia Superlastcar Championship: Early race collision and steering failure leaves Stanaway last at Hidden Valley

Friday, 20 June 2025

Early race collision and steering failure leaves Stanaway last at Hidden Valley

Original by Speedcafe, cropped by me

Richie Stanaway (#62 Nulon Chevrolet) finished last for the 8th time after Steeing issues with only 7 of the race's 42 laps complete. The finish came in Stanaway's 188th start, and is his 2nd last-place finish of the year.

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. After being let go for Kai Allen for 2025, Stanaway got a lifeline at Nulon Racing for 2025. He was 6th in Practice 1 then slid to 21st in Practice 2. Stanaway jumped to 10th in Qualifying.

Maculey Jones (#96 Pizza Hut Chevrolet) started the race in the rear, and battled for last with Aaron Cameron (#3 Cooldrive Distribution Ford) in the early lap.

Lap 2 saw Matt Payne (#19 Penrite Oils Ford) spun Richie Stanway (#62 Nulon Chevrolet) at Turn 2, dropping him to last. Stanaway would pull into the garage and retiring on Lap 9.

The remainder of the Bottom Five would take the race to sort out. Pitstops cycled through, starting on Lap 11 with Nick Percat (#10 Supaglass Chevrolet) and Matt Payne (#19 Penrite Oils Ford). Lap 13 saw Will Davison (#17 Shell V-Power Ford) and Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1/NTI Ford) pit, and Davison fall to 24^th. Mostert would slip to 24^th on Lap 17.

David Reynolds (#20 Readie Chevrolet) would pit Lap 19, followed by James Courtney (#7 Snowy River Caravans Ford) a lap later. Reynolds would be important later.

Courtney’s teammate Aaron Cameron (#3 Cooldrive Distribution Ford) pitted a lap later. Then Rylan Grey (#5 Koan Solutions Ford wildcard) pitted on Lap 21. Finally, Macauley Jones (#96 Pizza Hut Chevrolet) would pit on Lap 27.

David Reynolds would make contact with Cooper Murray (#99 Snap On Chevrolet), sending Murray down the order, and giving Reynolds a 15-second time penalty.

And then, with 3 laps to go, Thomas Randle (#55 Castrol Ford) ran into James Courtney, pushed him into Will Davison, who spun David Reynolds. Reynolds would be unable to get going, triggering a race-ending Safety Car. Thomas Randle, Rylan Gray and Aaron Cameron would round out the Bottom Five.

The Bottom Five

Richie Syanway	7 Laps	Steering
David Reynolds	39 Laps	Crash
Thomas Randle	42 Laps	Running
Rylan Gray	42 Laps	Running
Aaron Cameron	42 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Aaron Cameron	2	4	8
2	Richie Stanaway	2	4	6
3	Jaxon Evans	2	2	2
4T	Cooper Murray	1	5	7
4T	Will Davison	1	2	5
6T	James Golding	1	2	3
6T	Jack LeBrocq	1	2	3
6T	Macauley Jones	1	2	3
6T	Kai Allen	1	2	3
6T	Bryce Fullwood	1	2	3
11T	Aaron Love	1	2	2
11T	Cameron Crick	1	2	2
13	David Reynolds	0	2	4
14T	Thomas Randle	0	2	3
14T	Anton De Pasquale	0	1	2
14T	Nick Percat	0	1	2
14T	Cameron Hill	0	1	2
17T	Ryan Wood	0	1	1
17T	Chaz Mostert	0	1	1
17T	Brodie Kostecki	0	1	1
20	James Courtney	0	0	3
	Rylan Gray	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Team	Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Nulon Racing	2	3/2	6/2	10/2
2	Erebus Motorsports	2	2/2	6/2	10/2
3	Blanchard Racing Team	3	3/3	7/3	12/3
4	Brad Jones Racing	4	4/4	6/4	8/4
5	Dick Johnson Racing	2	1/2	4/2	7/2
6	Grove Racing	2	1/2	2/2	3/2
7	Matt Stone Racing	3	1/3	5/3	7/3
8T	Team 18	2	0	3/2	6/2
8T	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	0	3/2	3/2
10	Tickford Racing	4	0	2/4	5/4

Constructor’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	Drivers	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Chevrolet	15	10/15	25/15	40/15
2	Ford	12	4/12	17/12	30/12

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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.