Repco Australia Superlastcar Championship: Spindle Failure leaves Golding last at Sydney

Sunday, 22 February 2026

Spindle Failure leaves Golding last at Sydney

James Golding (#7 Cooldrive Distribution Ford) finished last for the 6th time. He finished 3 laps down. The finish came in his 165th start.

James Golding has been in and out of Supercars, debuting with the other four in 2017: Richie Stanaway, Jack LeBrocq, Todd Hazelwood, and Anton De Pasquale. He would be a co-driver in 2017 and run a few wildcard races for Garry Rodgers Motorsports before debuting. Golding would race for 2 years, with Garry Rodgers Motorsport closing shop at the end of the year, leaving Golding out of a ride. He would spend the next two years as co-driver for Team 18. Golding replaced Garry Jacobson at Premiair Hire Racing halfway through 2022. Golding would leave Premiair Hire Racing for the Blanchard Racing Team in 2026, and immediately would pay benefits, getting pole in the first race.

Macauley Jones (#96 Alpha Theta Toyota) would start last.

However, Cooper Murray (#99 Total Energies Chevrolet) stalled on the grid with a starter motor issue, dropping to last.

Murray would join the race, but half a minute behind the pack.

Pit stops caused changes to who was last. First was David Reynolds (#20 Snowy River Caravans Chevrolet) after his lap 14 pit stop.

The following lap, Jackson Walls (#11 Competitive Ford) dropped to last when he took his pit stop.

Lap 16 saw Cooper Murray pit and return to last.

Lap 22 saw Jobe Stewart (#9 Chiko Chevrolet) suffer a loose wheel, forcing a pit stop that dropped Stewart to last, a lap down.

Lap 28 saw James Golding, running in 5th place, have a left-rear tire come off his car on Lap 28, triggering the Safety Car and costing him 3 laps. Golding would fall to last.

The restart was chaotic. Brodie Ksotecki (#38 Shell V-Power Ford) hit Anton De Pasquale (#18 DeWalt/Fuchs Chevrolet). De Pasquale would subsequently run into Will Brown (#888 Red Bull/Ampol Ford), sending the latter two into the Bottom Five.

However, Brown and De Pasquale would work their way above the bottom five. Will Brown copped a 15-second time penalty for a restart infringement, but because Murray, Fraser, and Ojeda lost a bet on wets, Brown avoided a bottom five finish.

Lap 45 saw 2nd place Kai Allen (#26 Penrite Oils Ford) suffer steering failure, sending him to the garage and losing 3 laps in repairs.

Stewart, Fraser and Murray would complete the bottom five.

The Bottom Five

James Golding	49 Laps	Running
Kai Allen	49 Laps	Running
Jobe Stewart	51 Laps	Running
Declan Fraser	52 Laps	Running
Cooper Murray	52 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Cooper Murray	1	1	2
2T	Chaz Mostert	1	1	1
2T	James Golding	1	1	1
4T	Macauley Jones	0	2	2
4T	Jobe Stewart	0	2	2
6T	Andre Heimgartner	0	1	1
6T	Kai Allen	0	1	1
8	Rylan Gray	0	0	2
9T	Jayden Ojeda	0	0	1
9T	Ryan Wood	0	0	1
9T	Declan Fraser	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Driver	#	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Erebus Motorsports	2	1/2	3/2	4/2
2	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	1/2	1/2	2/2
3	Blanchard Racing Team	2	1/2	1/2	1/2
4	Brad Jones Racing	3	1/3	3/3	3/3
5	Premair Racing	2	0	1/2	2/2
6	Grove Racing	2	0	1/2	1/2
7	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	0	2/2

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	#	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Toyota	5	1/5	3/5	3/5
2	Chevrolet	8	1/8	5/8	7/8
3	Ford	11	1/11	2/11	4/11

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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.