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
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
,
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 ...
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
-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 500Official 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