Sandown 500
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|
| Race Information | |
| Venue | Sandown Raceway |
| Number of times held | 46 |
| First held | 1964 |
| Race Format | |
| Race 1 | |
| Laps | 161 |
| Distance | 500 km |
| Last Event (2016) | |
| Overall Winner | |
 Garth Tander Warren Luff
|
Holden Racing Team |
| Race Winners | |
|
Garth Tander Warren Luff
|
Holden Racing Team |
The Sandown 500 is an annual endurance motor race which has been staged at the Sandown Raceway, near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia since 1964. It has usually been held in September, the month before Australia’s premier endurance race, the Bathurst 1000.
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, and is formally known as the Wilson Security Sandown 500 for sponsorship reasons.
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 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 the Bathurst 1000. In common with the Bathurst race, it utilized 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. Colin Bond drove a Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1 to victory in 1971 and John Goss won the last Series Production 500 in 1972 in a Ford XY Falcon GTHO Phase III.
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