Repco Australia Superlastcar Championship: Power Steering Failure leaves Cooper Murray last at Sydney

Friday, 20 February 2026

Power Steering Failure leaves Cooper Murray last at Sydney

Credit to Supercars

Cooper Murray (#99 Total Energy Chevrolet) finished last for the 5th time in his career. The retirement came with power steering failure after 8 of the race’s 26 laps. The finish came in Murray’s 40th start.

Cooper Murray is in his 2nd full-time season for Erebus Motorsports, and after a difficult 2025 with 3 last-place finishes, Murray hoped better results came this year. Total Energy came aboard as a full-time sponsor for 2026.

In the only practice session, Murray was 12th.

Macauley Jones (#96 Alpha Theta Toyota) started the race last and held last place during the early laps.

Jones would remain last until Lap 9. Exiting Turn 11, Cooper Murray (#99 Total Energy Chevrolet) would report heavy steering and pull into the garage that lap.

A quick check revealed a power steering failure, which ended his race.

The bottom five took the rest of the race to finish. Jobe Stewart (#9 Chiko Chevrolet) would finish 23rd. 22nd place went to Macauley Jones (#96 Alpha Theta Toyota).

21st went to Ryan Wood (#2 Truck Assist/Mobil 1 Toyota) while 20th went to Rylan Gray (#38 Shell V-Power Ford).

The Bottom Five

Cooper Murray	8 Laps	Power Steering
Jobe Stewart	26 Laps	Running
Macauley Jones	26 Laps	Running
Ryan Wood	26 Laps	Running
Rylan Gray	26 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Cooper Murray	1	1	1
2T	Jobe Stewart	0	1	1
2T	Macauley Jones	0	1	1
4T	Ryan Wood	0	0	1
4T	Rylan Gray	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Driver	#	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Erebus Motorsports	2	1/2	1	1
2	Brad Jones Racing	3	0	1/3	1/3
3T	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	0	0	1/2
3T	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	0	1/2

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	#	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Chevrolet	8	1/8	3/8	3/8
2	Toyota	5	0	0	1/5
3	Ford	11	0	0	1/11

No comments:

Post a Comment

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.