The Townsville 500 (formally known as the NTI Townsville 500) is an annual

motor racing Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of t ...

event for Supercars, held on the

Reid Park Street Circuit Reid Park Street Circuit, also known as the Townsville Street Circuit, is a semi-permanent street circuit located in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Opened in 2009, the circuit hosts the Townsville 400 Supercars Championship event every ...

Townsville Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 3 ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. The event has been held since

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

. The event was known as the Townsville 400, based on a 400 kilometre format, in ten of the first eleven years of the event. In 2021, the event returned to the 500 kilometre format first used in 2014, while in both 2020 and 2021, two Townsville events were held under the Townsville SuperSprint banner due to calendar changes and shorter races caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Format

The event is staged over a three-day weekend, from Friday to Sunday. Two thirty-minute practice sessions are held on Friday. Saturday features a fifteen-minute qualifying session which decides the grid positions, succeeded by a top ten shootout for the following 250 kilometre race. A fifteen-minute qualifying session is held on Sunday, succeeded by a top ten shootout, the combined results of which decide the grid for the following 250 km race.

History

The event was announced in late 2007, following the allocation of funding from both the federal and the Queensland state government. The event became the third Queensland event on the calendar, joining Queensland Raceway in

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and the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit on the Gold Coast. However, Townsville did become the first major motor racing event to be held in the

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...

region. The event is generally held in early July each year, which aligns with the school holidays of the

Townsville State High School Townsville State High School, also known as Town High, is a secondary school in Railway Estate, Townsville, Queensland, Australia. History Townsville State High School was established in 1924 as part of the Townsville Technical College at ...

which borders the track. Jamie Whincup won the first race on the circuit in

, a race which was later reduced by one lap after it was discovered it had extended beyond the time certain finish without being noticed. James Courtney won the Sunday race, his first victory for

Dick Johnson Racing Dick Johnson Racing (formerly DJR Team Penske), is Australia's oldest motor racing team competing in the Supercars Championship. The team currently fields the #11 and #17 Ford Mustang GTs for Anton de Pasquale and Will Davison respectivel ...

. Whincup would go on to win the Saturday race again in

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with Mark Winterbottom this time winning the second race. 2011 and 2012 saw four consecutive wins for

Holden Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. It was an Australian automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter which sold cars under its own marque in Australia. In its last thr ...

, with Whincup winning three more races at the circuit. In

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, Russell Ingall broke the all time championship event starts record at the event, while Will Davison hit the fence as part of his post-race victory celebrations in the first race of the weekend. In the Sunday race, the Holden Racing Team scored a one-two finish with Tander leading home Courtney. The team would repeat the one-two finish in the second Saturday race of the 500 kilometre

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event, with Tander winning from 11th on the grid in the one-off dual-race Saturday format. Winterbottom won both races in

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to become the only driver other than Whincup, who achieved the feat in 2012, to achieve a clean sweep of the event. In the first ten years of the event, Whincup's record was unsurpassed, winning ten of the twenty-one races held at the track. Only Tander and Winterbottom (three each) and van Gisbergen (two) won multiple races at the circuit up to 2018. 2019 saw the first wet race in the event's history on the Sunday, beginning with Scott McLaughlin and David Reynolds clashing on Lap 1 which led to tensions between the drivers and teams involved extending for over a year. The race eventually saw van Gisbergen prevail after a chaotic race featuring several incidents and a pit lane fire at Brad Jones Racing. The 2020 event was initially delayed to August due to the

, before a second Townsville event was announced to be held one week later in early September. Both 2020 events, the only Queensland events on the final calendar, used a three-race sprint format under the Townsville SuperSprint event name. 2021 again saw a double-header as the impacts of COVID-19 in Australia persisted, with the first of the two a return to a 500 kilometre event distance last used in 2014. Triple Eight Race Engineering dominated the Townsville 500, leading all but one of the 176 laps, with van Gisbergen prevailing over Whincup in both races.

Winners

;Notes: * – In 2020 and 2021, Townsville hosted two consecutive rounds of the Supercars Championship

Multiple winners

By driver

By team

By manufacturer

;Notes * – Tickford Racing was known as Ford Performance Racing from 2003 to 2014 and as Prodrive Racing Australia from 2015 to 2017, hence their statistics are combined. * – DJR Team Penske was known as Dick Johnson Racing from 1980 to 2014, hence their statistics are combined.

Event names and sponsors

* 2009: Dunlop Townsville 400 * 2010–13: Sucrogen Townsville 400 * 2014:

Castrol Castrol is a British oil company that markets industrial and automotive lubricants, offering a wide range of oil, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications. The name ''Castrol'' was originally just the brand name for com ...

Townsville 500 – Driven by

TAFE Queensland TAFE Queensland is the statutory authority parent body for TAFE technical and further education training in the Australian state of Queensland. Established in 1882, TAFE Queensland is one of Australia's largest education providers with 120,00 ...

* 2015–16: Castrol Edge Townsville 400 * 2017–19: Watpac Townsville 400 * 2020: NTI Townsville SuperSprint * 2020: Robson Civil Projects Townsville SuperSprint * 2021–: NTI Townsville 500 * 2021:

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Townsville SuperSprint

References

{{V8 Supercar Teams Supercars Championship races Sport in Townsville Motorsport in Queensland Recurring sporting events established in 2009