Virgin Australia LASTCAR Championship: Tire safety changes after Lowndes tire failure leaves him last at Auckland

Sunday 8 November 2015

Tire safety changes after Lowndes tire failure leaves him last at Auckland

Craig Lowndes picked up his 6th last-place finish of his career when his #888 Red Bull Racing Australia Holden was involved in a single-car crash that ended his race after 12 of the race's 21 laps. The finish came in Lowndes' 248th round start.

The field shrank for race 29 to 24 cars after Jason Bright in the #8 BOC Holden was unable to make it to the grid, running out of time to replace the engine on car 8 after it failed late in the previous race. Ashley Walsh in the #10 10 tenths Mercedes started the race in the rear after car #10 was unable to set a lap time in Qualifying 2 due to damage sustained in a collision with Cameron Waters in the #6 Pepsi Max Ford in turn 5. Very quickly David Wall in the #34 Wilson Security/Valvoline Volvo fell to the rear, which he held until lap 7 when Nick Percat in the #222 OPS Gateway Australia Holden who suffered a pit-lane penalty for not redressing position to Michael Caruso in the #23 Nismo Nissan, dropping him to the rear on lap 8, and held it until Craig Lowndes in the #888 Red Bull Racing Australia Holden suffered a tire explosion and a big crash in turn 1 while leading on lap 12, ending his race and dropping him to last.

After the safety car, Percat worked his way up to 20th. Between Lowndes and Percat was Tim Blanchard in the #3 Cooldrive Mercedes, David Wall in the #34 Wilson Security/Valvoline Volvo and Ashley Walsh in the #10 10 tenths Mercedes.

The Bottom Five

Craig Lowndes	11 Laps	Crash
Tim Blanchard	21 Laps	Running
David Wall	21 Laps	Running
Ashley Walsh	21 Laps	Running
Nick Percat	21 Laps	Running

Driver's Championship

Scott McLaughlin: 5

Ashley Walsh, James Moffat, Nick Percat: 3

Will Davison, Andre Heimgartner, Todd Kelly, Lee Holdsworth, David Wall: 2

Garth Tander, Chazz Mostert, Fabian Coulthard, Jason Bright, Chris Pither, Sebastien Bourdais, Jack LeBrocq, Craig Lowndes: 1

Team's Championship

Gary Rodgers Motorsports: 7

Erebus Motorsport: 6

Nissan Motorsports. Lucas Dumbrell Motorsports: 3

Super Black Racing, Brad Jones Racing, Jack Daniel's Racing, Charlie Schwerkolt Racing: 2

Holden Racing Team, Prodrive Racing Australia, Red Bull Racing Australia: 1

Manufacturer's Championship:

Holden: 9

Volvo: 7

Mercedes: 6

Nissan: 5

Ford: 3

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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.