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The Sandown 500 (commercially titled Penrite Oil Sandown 500) is an annual
endurance Endurance (also related to sufferance, forbearance, resilience, constitution, fortitude, persistence, tenacity, steadfastness, perseverance, stamina, and hardiness) is the ability of an organism to exert itself and remain active for a ...
motor race which is staged at the Sandown Raceway, near
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,
Victoria, Australia Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...
from 1964. The event's name, distance – and the category of cars competing in it – has varied widely throughout its history. Currently, the event is held as a championship event for Supercars. Historically the event has been held in September, the month before Australia's premier endurance race, the
Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 (known for sponsorship reasons as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a Touring car racing, touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supe ...
, with a recent exception of the
2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...
running, held in November. The event returned in September 2023 after a three-year hiatus.


History


Production car era

The first two races were open to production based sedans and, at six hours duration, were substantially longer than later iterations of the race. Both races were won by an Alfa Romeo Giulia entered by Alec Mildren Racing. In 1965, Sandown also hosted the single-event
Australian Touring Car Championship The Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) is a touring car racing award held in Australia since 1960. The series itself is no longer contested, but the title lives on, with the winner of the Repco Supercars Championship awarded the troph ...
and hosted a regular sprint round from 1970 onwards. In 1968, after a two-year hiatus, the event was revived as a three-hour race and took on a long time role as an unofficial "warm-up" event for what was then the Bathurst 500. In common with the Bathurst race, it utilised technical regulations which limited cars to near production specifications, unlike the Australian Touring Car Championship which was for more highly modified Group C Improved Production Touring Cars. Manufacturers took a stronger interest in the race in this period and the Ford works team led by Canadian driver Allan Moffat won the 1969 race in a Ford XW Falcon GTHO Phase I, the first of six wins for Moffat. From 1970 the event's distance went from three hours to 250 miles, with
Colin Bond Colin John Bond (born 24 February 1942) is an Australian former racing driver. Bond reached the highest levels in Australian motorsport in 1969 when he was recruited by Harry Firth to the newly formed Holden Dealer Team. He quickly found succ ...
driving a Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1 to victory in 1971 and John Goss winning the last
Series Production Mass production, also known as mass production, series production, series manufacture, or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. ...
500 in 1972 in a Ford XY Falcon GTHO Phase III.


Group C Touring Car era

The race was contested by the newly introduced Group C Touring Car category from 1973, while from 1976 the event became known as the Sandown 400, held over 400 kilometres, despite only being scheduled for 338 kilometres in 1980 and 1982. During the Group C era, the event was dominated by Peter Brock who won nine of the twelve races, six with the Holden Dealer Team. The other three races were won by Allan Moffat. The 1982 race was the first Sandown endurance race since 1965 to be won by a make other than a Ford or
Holden Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. Founded in Adelaide, it was an automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter that sold cars under its own marque in Australia. It was ...
, Moffat scoring the first of two consecutive wins in a
Mazda RX-7 The Mazda RX-7 is a front mid engine, Rear-wheel drive, rear-wheel-drive, rotary engine-powered sports car, manufactured and marketed by Mazda from 1978 through 2002 across three generations, all of which incorporated the use of a compact, light ...
. His 1982 victory came after he was disqualified, then re-instated after a pit lane infringement penalty was removed post-race. With the Sandown circuit being upgraded and lengthened from 3.1 km to 3.9 km in mid-1984, the race was increased from 400 km to 500 km. Peter Brock and Larry Perkins won the 1984 race in a Holden VK Commodore. It was Brock's record 9th and last win in the Sandown Enduro.


Group A Touring Car era

Group C Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for Touring car racing, touring cars and ''Group B'' for Grand tourer, GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 (motorspor ...
was replaced by Australian regulations based on International Group A Touring Car rules in 1985. Jim Richards and Tony Longhurst won the first Group A race for driving a BMW 635 CSi, before George Fury scored a pair of victories in turbocharged Nissan Skylines with Glenn Seton in 1986 and Terry Shiel in 1987. The 1986 race was the first time a turbo powered car had won the Sandown enduro. Moffat claimed his sixth and final victory in 1988 in a Ford Sierra RS500 with former Grand Prix motorcyclist Gregg Hansford (the race would also prove to be Moffat's final race win in Australia). In a return to the original circuit layout, Nissan won again in 1989 with Jim Richards and Mark Skaife, before Seton and Fury took repeated their 1986 success with a win in Seton's Ford Sierra in 1990. The team of Mark Gibbs and Rohan Onslow driving a Bob Forbes Racing
Nissan GT-R The Nissan GT-R (''Gran Turismo–Racing''; model code: R35; Japanese: 日産・GT-R; ''Nissan GT-R'') is a series of cars built by Japanese marque Nissan from 2007 to 2025. It has a 2+2 (car body style), 2+2 seating layout and is considered b ...
had the biggest win of their careers in 1991. A slim entry of Group A cars in 1991 saw race organisers bring production cars back to the race as additional entries running in their own class, as they would in 1992, 1993 and 1994. A class for cars complying with the
1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...
Group 3A 5.0 Litre Touring Car regulations, later to become known as V8 Supercars, was also included in the 1992 race. The 1992 Sandown 500 featured a memorable late race duel between Larry Perkins in his Group A Holden VL Commodore and Tony Longhurst in his
BMW M3 The BMW M3 is a high-performance version of the BMW 3 Series, developed by BMW's in-house motorsport division, BMW M GmbH. M3 models have been produced for every generation of 3 Series since the E30 M3 was introduced in 1986. The initial mod ...
in changeable weather, with Perkins holding on for his second Sandown win and the only win for his co-driver Steve Harrington.


Group 3A Touring Car era

The Group 3A 5.0 Litre Touring Cars regulations were adopted for the 500 in 1993 and Glenn Seton Racing's second entry, driven by David Parsons and Geoff Brabham won a race of high attrition. 1994 saw Dick Johnson's breakthrough win in the one race he had not been able to win in almost 20 years. He and John Bowe backed it up with a second win in 1995. The Holden Racing Team then scored consecutive wins with Craig Lowndes and Greg Murphy, including a memorable duel with Glenn Seton in 1997. Larry Perkins claimed his third win in 1998 with Russell Ingall before V8 Supercars, as it was then known, decided to look for other opportunities for their 500 km race.


Nations Cup era

The second hiatus in the history of the race commenced in 1999 when a
Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
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-supported bid saw the Sandown 500 replaced on the Supercars calendar by the Queensland 500, held at Queensland Raceway. The Sandown 500 was revived in 2001, returning to its roots as a race for production cars. With regulations linked to those of the Australian Nations Cup Championship, (a championship for GT style cars), and the Australian GT Production Car Championship, the race featured a more exotic variety of cars than it had traditionally attracted. John Bowe, driving with Steve Beards, took his third Sandown 500 win in 2001 in a
Ferrari 360 The Ferrari 360 (Type F131) is a two-seater mid-engine rear-wheel drive sports car manufactured by Ferrari from 1999 until 2004. It succeeded the Ferrari F355 and was replaced by the Ferrari F430 in 2004. Development history Ferrari partnered ...
, and a Lamborghini Diablo driven by multiple Australian Drivers' Champion
Paul Stokell Paul Francis Stokell (born 8 March 1968 in Tasmania) is an Australian racing driver. Highly decorated in every category he has competed, Stokell has been a race and multiple championship winning driver in open wheel, sportscar racing and tarmac ...
and Anthony Tratt won in 2002.


V8 Supercars era

By 2003, new owners of Queensland Raceway had tired of the relative expense of the 500 kilometre endurance race format, resulting in the Sandown 500 again being contested by V8 Supercars. By 2003, the 500 kilometre event, as well as the Bathurst 1000, was also included as a points-paying event within each V8 Supercars season, which meant that the circuit's sprint event dropped off the championship for the first extended period since the 1960s. The 2003 race, which featured a mid-race hail storm, was also notable for a late race battle between Mark Skaife and Jason Richards in wet conditions. On the penultimate lap, Richards attempted to pass Skaife for the lead at Turn 9, but ended up bogged in the gravel trap and out of the race. Skaife also toured the gravel trap but was able to rejoin the track and went on to win. The 2004, 2005 and 2006 races saw the debut championship event wins in the category for Greg Ritter, Yvan Muller and
Mark Winterbottom Mark James "Frosty" Winterbottom (born 20 May 1981) is an Australian former professional racing driver. He last competed in the Supercars Championship, Repco Supercars Championship, driving the No. 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Team 18. His career ...
respectively. In 2007, Lowndes won the event for the fourth time, with
Jamie Whincup Jamie David Whincup (born 6 February 1983) is an Australian professional racing driver competing in the Supercars Championship. He currently is team principal for Triple Eight Race Engineering. He has driven the No. 88 Holden Commodore (ZB), Ho ...
. Lowndes and Whincup would go on to become the first pairing to win the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 in the same year since Lowndes and Murphy in 1996. After a change of promoter of Sandown Raceway's motorsport activities, a changed V8 Supercars calendar resulted in the 500 kilometre event moving to the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit for the 2008 season, while Sandown reverted to hosting a sprint round, an event which became known as the
Sandown Challenge The Sandown SuperSprint was a Supercars Championship, Supercars motor racing event held at Sandown Raceway in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria, Australia. The event was a semi-regular part of the Supercars Championship—and its previous ...
.


Australian Manufacturers' Championship

The Sandown 500 was revived in 2011 as a round of the Australian Manufacturers' Championship. It was split into two legs, run on Saturday and Sunday, with the overall placings based on the combined results of the two legs. The semi-factory supported Mitsubishi entry of Stuart Kostera and Ian Tulloch claimed the win in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.


Return of Supercars

The Sandown 500 returned to the V8 Supercars calendar in 2012, replacing the Phillip Island 500 to again become the traditional lead-in race to the
Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 (known for sponsorship reasons as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a Touring car racing, touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supe ...
. The format used at the Phillip Island 500 from 2008 to 2012 was brought to Sandown, with two short races on Saturday used to set the grid. Each co-driver has to drive one of the two races. From 2013, the event became part of the newly formed Pirtek Enduro Cup within the Supercars season, along with the series' other two-driver races, the Bathurst 1000 and
Gold Coast 600 The Gold Coast 500 (known for sponsorship reasons as the Boost Mobile (Australia), Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500) is an annual motor racing event for Supercars Championship, Supercars, held at the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit in Surfers Parad ...
. Triple Eight Race Engineering dominated on the return to the track, with wins from 2012 to 2014. 2015 saw Winterbottom win the Sandown 500 for a second time, having first tasted success in 2006, leading home a Prodrive Racing Australia one-two finish. From 2016 onwards, the newly-renamed Supercars Championship promoted the event as a "retro round", with several teams adopting one-off liveries for the event. The idea was loosely inspired by
NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...
's Bojangles' 500, that since 2015 has become a "retro round". The race itself saw Garth Tander, driving with 2012 winner Warren Luff, win his first Sandown 500 in mixed conditions, holding off
Shane van Gisbergen Shane Robert van Gisbergen (born 9 May 1989), also known by his initials SVG, is a New Zealand professional auto racing, racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro (sixth generation)#ZL1, C ...
by under half a second. The race was shortened by 18 laps following a first lap crash involving James Golding that damaged the turn 6 tyre barrier which needed to be repaired. The 2017 event was again shortened due to a lap one crash at turn 6, this time involving Taz Douglas. Cam Waters and Richie Stanaway won the race, the first race victories of both of their Supercars careers. In 2018, Triple Eight Race Engineering dominated the event, scoring a clean sweep of the three podium positions, led by Whincup and
Paul Dumbrell Paul Lakeland Dumbrell (born 1 September 1982) is an Australian business executive and retired racing driver. Racing history Junior career Son of former racing driver Garry Dumbrell, Paul Dumbrell started racing in karts in 1996 and by the en ...
who won their third Sandown 500 together. The 2019 event was scheduled in November, resulting in no lead-in endurance event to the Bathurst 1000, while the Saturday grid races became official championship points-paying races. It was also announced in the months leading up to the event that the Sandown 500 would not return in
2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...
, to be replaced by The Bend 500 at
The Bend Motorsport Park The Bend Motorsport Park, currently known as Shell V-Power Motorsport Park for naming rights reasons, is a bitumen motor racing circuit at Tailem Bend, South Australia, Tailem Bend, South Australia, Australia, about south-east of the state ca ...
(which eventually did not happen to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. Sandown is scheduled to remain on the calendar with the return of the circuit's sprint event. At the final scheduled running of the event, Triple Eight, who had dropped to two entrants in 2019, were on track for another one-two finish before a mechanical failure while leading took the van Gisbergen/Tander entry, who had started from second last on the grid, out of contention. Whincup inherited the lead and won the race with Craig Lowndes, a repeat of their 2007 win together and their fifth and sixth wins of the race respectively. Meanwhile, after being relegated to last position on the grid for a technical infringement dating back to the 2019 Bathurst 1000, Scott McLaughlin secured the 2019 Supercars Championship with a round to spare with a ninth place finish driving with Alexandre Prémat.


Post-COVID-19 Return

After three years of a single two-driver endurance race on the calendar, including the return of the Sandown SuperSprint event in 2021 and 2022, the 2023 Supercars Championship re-instated the 500 in its traditional pre-Bathurst slot. The first two events of its return were won by Triple Eight Race Engineering - including Whincup's sixth event win in 2023.


List of winners

Official Programme, International 6 Hour Touring Car Race, Sunday, 21 November 1965 ;Notes: * – Race was stopped before full race distance because of time limit set by officials.


Records and statistics


Multiple winners


By driver


By entrant


By manufacturer


Most pole positions


Most podiums


Event sponsors

* 1968–69:
Datsun Datsun (, ) was a Japanese automobile manufacturer brand owned by Nissan. Datsun's original production run began in 1931. From 1958 to 1986, only vehicles exported by Nissan were identified as Datsun. Nissan phased out the Datsun brand in Marc ...
* 1976–81: Hang Ten * 1982–87: Castrol * 1988: Enzed * 1989: .05 * 1991–92: Don't Drink Drive * 1996–98: Tickford * 2001:
Clarion Clarion may refer to: Music * Clarion (instrument), a type of trumpet used in the Middle Ages * The Register (music), register of a clarinet that ranges from B4 to C6 * A Trumpet (organ stop), trumpet organ stop that usually plays an octave abov ...
* 2003–05: Betta Electrical * 2007: Just Car Insurance * 2011: Dial Before You Dig * 2012: Dick Smith * 2013–17: Wilson Security * 2018: RABBLE.club * 2019, 2023–present: Penrite Oil


See also

* Sandown SuperSprint * List of Australian Touring Car Championship races


References


External links


2017 Sandown 500
Official event website {{V8 Supercar Teams Supercars Championship races Motorsport at Sandown Touring car races Auto races in Australia Recurring sporting events established in 1964 1964 establishments in Australia Endurance motor racing