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| Credit: Supercars |
Aaron Cameron finished last for the 8th time. Zak Bates
finished last for the 4th time. The finish came after disqualification, since
Aaron Cameron failed to complete enough laps of the race. The finish came in
Cameron’s 64th start and Best’s 13th.
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 throughout the season, although
rarer in frequency as the season progressed.
Zak Best ran a successful Super2 campaign between 2021 and
2023, where he finished 2nd all three years. Best has also made a handful of
Supercars starts, either as a wildcard or co-driver. His best result was at the
2022 Tailem Bend round, where he started on pole. However, that round would see
his first last-place finish after a strange windscreen wiper failure ended his
race.
Best would run 11 more races and pick up one more last-place
finish. That happened at the 2022 Bathurst 1000 after an opening lap crash
ended his and Thomas Randle’s run without completing a single lap.
For the Endurance rounds, Aaron Cameron would team up with
Zak Best.
Cameron and Best were 19th in Practice 1, while Best slipped
to 23rd in Practice 2. The slide continued in Practice 3, down to 25th. Best
improved to 21st in Practice 4, and they improved to 20th in Practice 5.
Finally, Aaron Cameron improved to 17th in Qualifying.
Cameron Hill and Bead Vaughn (#14 Farmers Union Iced Coffee
Toyota) started last.
There were several incidents on the first lap. Mark
Winterbottom (#6 Monster Energy Ford) spun Will Davison (#19 Penrite Ford) at
Turn 1, netting car 6 a 15-second time penalty and dropping Davison to last.
Scott Pye (#888 Red Bull/Ampol Ford) spun James Courtney
(#20 Snowy River Caravans Chevrolet) at Turn 6.
Subsequent contact also collected Zach Best (#3 Liqui Moly
Bathurst Ford)
They sent Courtney to the garage with steering damage,
causing a loss of 5 laps during repairs. Pye would pit with a puncture, losing
1 lap. Best would continue.
The following lap, Lee Holdsworth (#18 DeWalt Chevrolet)
spun Nick Percat (#88 Red Bull/Ampol Ford). Holdsworth would cop a 15 second
time penalty for the hit.
Another incident included Bryce Fullwood (#8 R&J
Batteries Toyota) spinning Craig Lowndes (#15 Supercheap Auto Chevrolet) at
Turn 5.
Three safety cars would trigger, starting Lap 27 until Lap
33. The race restart, however, would shake up the last-place race.
A second collision between Best and Pye sent both cars to
the garage with suspension damage, costing both 5 laps. The duo would fall
behind Courtney, leaving them to battle for last place for most of the race.
Best would cop a pit-lane drive through penalty for wrecking
Pye.
Track conditions would remain bad, and on Lap 45, a second
Safety Car would be called.
As the race continued, the #888, #3 and #20 would start
recovering laps thanks to the wave around rule.
The #88 and #3 would exchange last place until 3 laps to go
when Declan Fraser (#777 Nulon Chevrolet) slowed heading out of Turn 12 and
came to a stop, ending his race with engine issues.
However, Fraser and Nash Morris wouldn’t finish last. The
race officials disqualified the Blanchard Racing Team. This was for not having
Aaron Cameron and James Golding complete enough laps during the race.
This was because the team made an error not accommodating
for the shortening of the race because of time restrictions. The
disqualification dropped Cameron and Best only one spot, but plunged Golding
and Richie Stanaway to 25th. This result left Golding almost 100 points behind
10th place Jack LeBrocq, and also behind Jayden Ojeda, Thomas Randle and Andre
Heimgartner.
The Bottom Five
|
Aaron
Cameron/Zak Best |
-137 Laps |
Disqualified |
|
James
Golding/Richie Stanaway |
-141 Laps |
Disqualified |
|
Declan Fraser/Nash
Morris |
135 Laps |
Engine |
|
Broc Feeney/Nick
Percat |
138 Laps |
Running |
|
David
Reynolds/James Courtney |
139 Laps |
Running |
Driver’s Championship
|
Pos |
Driver |
Last |
Bottom 3 |
Bottom 5 |
|
1 |
Jackson Walls |
4 |
9 |
13 |
|
2 |
Cooper Murray |
3 |
7 |
10 |
|
3 |
Aaron Cameron |
3 |
5 |
11 |
|
4 |
Ryan Wood |
3 |
4 |
6 |
|
5 |
Chaz Mostert |
3 |
3 |
3 |
|
6 |
Jobe Stewart |
2 |
9 |
14 |
|
7T |
Jack LeBrocq |
2 |
2 |
2 |
|
7T |
Brodie Kostecki |
2 |
2 |
2 |
|
9 |
Macauley Jones |
1 |
10 |
12 |
|
10 |
Cameron Hill |
1 |
3 |
5 |
|
11 |
Andre Heimgartner |
1 |
3 |
3 |
|
12 |
David Reynolds |
1 |
2 |
4 |
|
13T |
Matt Payne |
1 |
2 |
3 |
|
13T |
James Golding |
1 |
2 |
3 |
|
15 |
Baylan Hall |
1 |
2 |
2 |
|
16 |
Aaron Seton |
1 |
1 |
3 |
|
17 |
Zak Best |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
18 |
Declan Fraser |
0 |
5 |
8 |
|
19 |
Rylan Gray |
0 |
4 |
8 |
|
20 |
Zach Bates |
0 |
3 |
8 |
|
21 |
Reuben Goodall |
0 |
2 |
3 |
|
22 |
Kai Allen |
0 |
2 |
2 |
|
23T |
Ben Gomersal |
0 |
1 |
2 |
|
23T |
Thomas Randle |
0 |
1 |
2 |
|
23T |
Broc Feeney |
0 |
1 |
2 |
|
26T |
Mark Winterbottom |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
26T |
Richie Stanaway |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
26T |
Nash Morris |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
29 |
Jayden Oeda |
0 |
0 |
3 |
|
30 |
Will Brown |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
31T |
Nick Percat |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
31T |
James Courtney |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Team’s Championship
|
Pos |
Driver |
# |
Last |
Bottom 3 |
Bottom 5 |
|
1 |
Overdrive/RBR Racing |
2 |
4/2 |
9/2 |
13/2 |
|
2 |
Walkinshaw Andretti United |
4 |
6/4 |
7/4 |
10/4 |
|
3 |
Blanchard Racing Team |
4 |
5/4 |
9/4 |
16/4 |
|
4 |
Erebus Motorsports |
4 |
4/4 |
14/4 |
22/4 |
|
5 |
Matt Stone Racing |
6 |
3/6 |
9/6 |
14/6 |
|
6 |
Brad Jones Racing |
6 |
2/6 |
10/6 |
17/6 |
|
7 |
Dick Johnson Racing |
4 |
2/4 |
6/4 |
10/4 |
|
8 |
Grove Racing |
4 |
1/4 |
4/4 |
4/4 |
|
9 |
Team 18 Racing |
6 |
2/6 |
3/6 |
6/6 |
|
10 |
Premair Racing |
4 |
0 |
7/4 |
11/4 |
|
11 |
Tickford Racing |
7 |
0 |
5/7 |
7/7 |
|
12 |
Red Bull Racing |
4 |
0 |
1/4 |
5/4 |
Manufacturer’s Championship
|
Pos |
Manufacturer |
# |
Last |
Bottom 3 |
Bottom 5 |
|
1 |
Toyota |
10 |
7/10 |
19/10 |
21/10 |
|
2 |
Chevrolet |
20 |
11/20 |
33/20 |
56/20 |
|
3 |
Ford |
25 |
11/25 |
34/25 |
43/25 |
