Only four Kiwi drivers have won the annual Sandown 500 endurance event which has been contested at Sandown Raceway, Melbourne, in various forms and category of cars since 1964.
Driving a Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R, it was Jim Richards who in 1989, with Australian driver Mark Scaife, became the first Kiwi to win the ‘.05 500’ endurance race contested by Group 3A Touring Cars.
Seven years later Greg Murphy with Craig Lowndes won the Tickford 500 in a Holden VR Commodore and repeated the feat together the following year 1998, this time in a VS Commodore.
The race wasn’t held in either 1999 and 2000 (replaced on the Supercars calendar by the Queensland 500) or between the years 2008 to 2010 when the 500km event went to Phillip Island.
Then in 2011 Southland’s Inky Tulloch (main picture) won the ‘Dial Before You Dig AMC 500′ with Australian Stuart Kostera in a semi-factory supported Mitsubishi Lancer RE-E Evo X. The Sandown 500 was a round of the Australian Manufacturers’ Championship, split into two legs, run on Saturday and Sunday, with the overall placings based on the combined results of the two legs.
The fourth Kiwi driver to win was Richie Stanaway in 2017. He teamed up with Cameron Waters (Ford FG X Falcon) to win the Wilson Security Sandown 500.
Having taken pole position for the race, the young pairing led home Scott McLaughlin/Alex Premat in second and Chaz Mostert/Steve Owen in third.
In the last five years, beside Stanaway’s win, Kiwi drivers have stood on the lower steps of the podium each year.
In 2018 Shane van Gisbergen and fellow Kiwi Earl Bamber finished second to team mates Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell.
In 2017 Scott McLaughlin and Alex Premat were second to Stanaway/Waters.
In 2016 Premat was co-driver to van Gisbergen, with the pairing second to Garth Tander/Warren Luff.
Again van Gisbergen was on the podium in 2015, this time with Jonathan Webb with Mark Winterbottom/Steve Owen taking the win.
In 2014 it was Greg Murphy and James courtney who finished runner up to the Whincup/Dumbrell combination.
Chances are that a Kiwi will be on the podium later today at the 2019 Sandown 500.
See also: Will this be the last Sandown 500 by Richard Craill
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