Repco Australia Superlastcar Championship: Opening lap crash leaves defending Champion Aaron Cameron last at Ruapuna.

Saturday, 18 April 2026

Opening lap crash leaves defending Champion Aaron Cameron last at Ruapuna.

Credit: Supercars

The defending last-place champion Aaron Cameron (#3 Liqui Moly Blahst Ford) finished last at Ruapuna. His finish was the 7th of his career and came after a multi-car crash ended his race without completing a single lap of the last race. The finish came in Cameron’s 48th start.

This is Cameron’s 2nd last-place finish of the season, and moves him into 3rd in the last-place Championship.

The Blanchard Racing Team drafted Aaron Cameron to replace Aaron Love after the first round of the 2025 Supercars season. Winning the 2023 S5000 Australian and Tasman series and taking second in the Super 2 Championship shows his strong racing record. He was Aaron Love’s co-driver in 2024, where they finished 17th at Sandown and 23rd at Bathurst. Several last-place finishes marked his rookie campaign. Cameron finished last in Adelaide, crashing from contention nine laps into the race. This crash secured his last-place championship.

Since then, the Blanchard Racing Team gained a technical alliance with Red Bull Racing.

The first race of 2026 saw Aaron Cameron finish on the podium.

Unfortunately, incidents have left Aaron Cameron without the results to back up his speed.

This trend has continued into Taupo and Ruapuna.

He was 22nd in Practice 1, soared to 9th in Qualifying, which he backed up in the Top 10 Shootout.

Cameron Hill (#14 Electro-Voice/Jayco Toyota) started last. But Cameron Waters (#6 Monster Energy Ford) stalled off the start on the formation lap. Waters had to start from the pits and slipped to last.

Rylan Gray (#38 Shell V-Power Ford) ran into the back of Jackson Walls (#11 Objective Ford). Aaron Cameron (#3 Liqui Moly Ford) and David Reynolds (#20 Snowy River Caravans Chevrolet) and Thomas Randle (#55 Castrol Ford) were also involved.

Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries Toyota) spun Jayden Ojeda (#31 Nulon Chevrolet) during the crash.

Cameron collected both Gray and Walls, terminally damaging Gray’s and Cameron’s cars.

Walls lost 11 laps in repairs. Since Cameron was behind Gray, this credited Cameron with last place.

7 laps from winning the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy, Ryan Wood (#2 Truck Assist/Mobil 1 Toyota) slowed with an engine issue, triggering the 2nd Safety Car of the race.

Jobe Stewart (#9 Erebus Chevrolet) copped a puncture from Zach Bates (#10 Bendix Chevrolet). The incident, and his team not being ready, cost Stewart a lap. Further issues with the rear of the car would cost Stewart another 4 laps.

The Bottom Five

Aaron Cameron	0 Laps	Crash
Rylan Gray	0 Laps	Crash
Ryan Wood	54 Laps	Engine
Jackson Walls	50 Laps	Running
Jobe Stewart	56 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Jackson Walls	3	5	7
2	Cooper Murray	2	4	6
3	Aaron Cameron	2	2	6
4	Jobe Stewart	1	5	8
5	Cameron Hill	1	2	2
6T	Matt Payne	1	1	2
6T	David Reynolds	1	1	2
8T	Chaz Mostert	1	1	1
8T	James Golding	1	1	1
10	Macauley Jones	0	5	6
11	Declan Fraser	0	2	4
12T	Kai Allen	0	2	2
12T	Andre Heimgartner	0	2	2
14	Rylan Gray	0	1	4
15	Ryan Wood	0	1	3
16T	Thomas Randle	0	1	1
16T	Broc Feeney	0	1	1
16T	Zach Bates	0	1	1
19	Will Brown	0	0	2
20	Jayden Oeda	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Driver	#	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Overdrive/RBR Racing	1	3	4	6
2	Erebus Motorsports	2	3/2	9/2	14/2
3	Blanchard Racing Team	2	3/2	4/2	8/2
4	Brad Jones Racing	3	2/3	7/3	9/3
5	Grove Racing	2	1/2	3/2	3/2
6T	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	1/2	2/2	3/2
6T	Team 18 Racing	2	1/2	1/2	2/2
8	Premair Racing	2	0	4/2	6/2
9	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	2/2	5/2
10	Matt Stone Racing	2	0	2/2	2/2
11	Red Bull Racing	2	0	1/2	3/2
12	Tickford Racing	2	0	1/2	2/2

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	#	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Chevrolet	8	5/8	18/8	29/8
2	Ford	11	6/11	13/11	21/11
3	Toyota	5	2/5	7/5	11/5

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.