The Bend 500 was a planned

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 two ...

event for

Supercars A supercar – also called exotic car – is a loosely defined description of street-legal, high-performance sports cars. Since the 2010s, the term hypercar has come into use for the highest performing supercars. Supercars commonly serve as t ...

, to be held at

The Bend Motorsport Park The Bend Motorsport Park is a bitumen motor racing circuit at Tailem Bend, South Australia, Australia, about south-east of the state capital, Adelaide. The complex has a bitumen circuit, drag racing strip, and drift racing circuit. The rac ...

Tailem Bend, South Australia Tailem Bend (locally, "Tailem") is a rural town in South Australia, south-east of the state capital of Adelaide. It is located on the lower reaches of the River Murray, near where the river flows into Lake Alexandrina. It is linear in layout s ...

commencing in

2020 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 events, COVID- ...

. The event was cancelled due to 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 identif ...

Format

The event, which would have been run over three days, was scheduled to feature a twenty-five minute qualifying session followed by a top-ten shootout to determine the grid. This would have been followed by a 500 kilometre race with the Supercars primary drivers joined by co-drivers. The event was to have been included with the

Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 (formally known as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supercars Championship, the most recen ...

and the

Gold Coast 600 The Gold Coast 500 (formally known as the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500) is an annual motor racing event for Supercars, held at the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia. The event has been a regular part o ...

in the annual

Enduro Cup The Enduro Cup (formally known as the Pirtek Enduro Cup for sponsorship reasons), was an award given out to the highest points scorers over the three endurance events in Supercars; the Sandown 500, Bathurst 1000 and the Gold Coast 600. Format Q ...

History

opened in 2018 and hosted

The Bend SuperSprint The Bend SuperSprint (formally known as the OTR SuperSprint – The Bend) is an annual motor racing event for Supercars, held at The Bend Motorsport Park in Tailem Bend, South Australia since 2018. In 2020, after originally being intended to be ...

for two years before being announced as the host of an endurance race as part of the 2020 Supercars Championship, replacing the

Sandown 500 The Sandown 500 (formally known as the Penrite Oil Sandown 500) is an annual endurance motor race which is staged at the Sandown Raceway, near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia from 1964. The event's name, distance – and the category of cars co ...

as the series' annual 500 kilometre race. In June 2020, the event was removed from the second revision of the 2020 calendar, caused by the

, however a double-header sprint event at The Bend was then added to the calendar in a further calendar shuffle in August 2020. The event was again excluded from the 2021 Supercars Championship calendar.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bend 500, The Motorsport in South Australia Recurring sporting events established in 2020 Supercars Championship races 2020 establishments in Australia Endurance motor racing