The Phillip Island 500 was an annual

motor racing An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

event, last held for

Supercars A supercar, also known as an exotic car, is a street-legal sports car with race track-like power, speed, and handling, plus a certain subjective ''cachet'' linked to pedigree and/or exclusivity. The term 'supercar' is frequently used for th ...

at the

Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit The Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit is a motor racing circuit located near Ventnor, Victoria, Ventnor, on Phillip Island, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The current circuit was first used in 1952. Along with The Bend Motorsport P ...

Phillip Island Phillip Island (Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung: ''Corriong'', ''Worne'' or ''Millowl'') is an Australian island about south-southeast of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The island is named after Arthur Phillip, Governor Arthur P ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

. The race had three distinct eras; from 1971 to 1977 as an endurance

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

and later

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 ...

race, from 2008 to 2011 as an endurance race as part of

V8 Supercars The Supercars Championship, also known as the Repco Supercars Championship under sponsorship and historically as V8 Supercars, is a touring car racing category in Australia and New Zealand, running as an International Series under Fédération I ...

and from 2017 to 2018 as a Supercars Championship event consisting of two 250 km races.

History

Background

From 1960 to 1962, Phillip Island hosted the

Armstrong 500 Armstrong may refer to: Places * Armstrong Creek (disambiguation), various places * Armstrong River (disambiguation), various rivers Antarctica * Armstrong Reef, Biscoe Islands Argentina * Armstrong, Santa Fe Australia * Armstrong, Victor ...

, a 500-mile race which later evolved into 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 ...

1971–77

The 1971 and 1972 races were open to

Group E Series Production Touring Cars Group E Series Production Touring Cars was an Australian motor racing category for production based sedans competing with limited modifications. It was current from 1964 to 1972. Although production car racing in Australia had gained momentum with ...

. With the demise of the Group E category at the end of 1972 the event switched to

Group C Touring Car In relation to Australian motorsport, Group C refers to either of two sets of regulations devised by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) for use in Australian Touring Car Racing from 1965 to 1984. These are not to be confused with ...

regulations. The 500K was a round of the

Australian Manufacturers' Championship The Australian Manufacturers' Championship was a motor racing title awarded by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) to the winning car manufacturer in an annual series of races held throughout Australia. Whilst the first two champi ...

from 1971 to 1975 and counted towards both the Australian Championship of Makes and the

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

and

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

. The event name changed throughout this period according to the sponsorship (or lack thereof) each year.

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 ...

and

Peter Brock Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was an Australian motor racing driver. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, al ...

dominated the event in the 1970s, winning five of the seven events between them. In 1972,

Allan Moffat Allan George Moffat, Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 10 November 1939 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a Canadian-born Australian racing driver known for his four championships in the Australian Touring Car Championship, six wins ...

won the event, in what is to this day the only Phillip Island 500 win for

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

2008–11

The race was revived in 2008 as two-driver endurance event for V8 Supercars, replacing the

Sandown 500 The Sandown 500 (commercially titled Penrite, Penrite Oil Sandown 500) is an annual endurance racing (motorsport), endurance Auto racing, motor race which is staged at the Sandown Raceway, near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia from 1964. The even ...

as the lead-in event to the annual

race. The format featured two short races on Saturday, one for each co-driver, that set the grid, before the traditional 500 km race on the Sunday. It remained part of the

V8 Supercar Championship Series The Supercars Championship, also known as the Repco Supercars Championship under sponsorship and historically as V8 Supercars, is a touring car racing category in Australia and New Zealand, running as an International Series under Fédération I ...

for four consecutive years before the

was reinstated as the host of the 500 km championship race for the 2012 season. This iteration of the event was dominated by the

Holden Racing Team Walkinshaw Andretti United is an Australian motor racing team based in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton. The team, initially branded as the Holden Racing Team, used to field Holden Commodores in the Supercars Championship before making the swit ...

and

Triple Eight Race Engineering Triple Eight Race Engineering, branded as Red Bull Ampol Racing in Supercars, is an Australian motor racing team competing in the Supercars Championship. The team has been the only Brisbane-based V8 Supercar team since its formation, originall ...

, winning two races each. The Triple Eight entry of

Craig Lowndes Craig Andrew Lowndes (born 21 June 1974) is an Australian racing car driver in the Supercars Championship, Repco Supercars Championship racing for Triple Eight Race Engineering. He is also a TV commentator. Lowndes is a three-time V8 Superca ...

and

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 ...

also led the other two events late in the race, before being overtaken by the Holden Racing Team's

Garth Tander Garth Dirk Tander (born 31 March 1977) is a multiple-championship winning Australian motor racing driver competing in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship's Enduro Cup, co-driving for Grove Racing. He was the 2007 series champion for th ...

. The 2008 event saw Tander, driving with

Mark Skaife Mark Stephen Skaife (born 3 April 1967) is an Australian former racing driver. Skaife is a five-time champion of the Supercars Championship, V8 Supercar Championship Series, including its predecessor, the Australian Touring Car Championship, a ...

, win after Whincup lost the lead due to an error. In 2009, Tander, this time driving with

Will Davison William Davison (born 30 August 1982) is an Australian professional racing driver. He currently drives the No.17 Ford Mustang (sixth generation), Ford Mustang GT for Dick Johnson Racing in the Supercars Championship, Repco Supercars Championshi ...

, passed Lowndes, who had a slowly deflating tyre, on the final lap. For the 2010 season, a rules change forced a team's primary drivers to be split across their two cars, therefore Lowndes and Whincup were split up, with vastly different outcomes. Whincup lost a third race from the lead in three years following an engine failure, whilst Lowndes would go on to win, this time with Skaife. This occurred ten years after Lowndes and Skaife had won the

Queensland 500 The Queensland 500 was a motorsport endurance race held at Queensland Raceway near Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. It was best known as a V8 Supercars race held from 1999 to 2002. History Background The Queensland 500 was launched by the V8 Su ...

driving together. The final running of the event in 2011 saw Lowndes and Skaife win again, leading home a Triple Eight one-two finish ahead of Whincup and Andrew Thompson. The win saw Skaife level Colin Bond as the only drivers to win the event three times.

2017–18

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, the

Phillip Island SuperSprint The Phillip Island SuperSprint was an annual motor racing event for Supercars, held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Phillip Island, Victoria. The event was a semi-regular part of the Supercars Championship, and its previous incarnation ...

format was dropped in favour of two 250 km races, which led to the revival of the Phillip Island 500 name. The event itself was marred by a spate of tyre failures across the weekend, while Ford were also able to break their 45 year drought at the event. The

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

event was staged over a three-day weekend, from Friday to Sunday. Two thirty-minute practice sessions were held on Friday. Saturday featured a twenty-minute qualifying session which decided the grid positions for the following 250 kilometre race. A twenty-minute qualifying session was held on Sunday which decided the grid for the following 250 km race.2018 WD-40 Phillip Island 500 Schedule & Results

The Phillip Island event returned to SuperSprint status in

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 ...

Winners

Multiple winners

By driver

By team

By manufacturer

Event sponsors

* 1974: RE-PO * 1976:

Rover Rover may refer to: People Name * Constance Rover (1910–2005), English historian * Jolanda de Rover (born 1963), Dutch swimmer * Rover Thomas (c. 1920–1998), Indigenous Australian artist Stage name * Rover (musician), French singer-songw ...

* 1977: Ready Plan Insurance * 2008–11: L&H * 2017–18:

WD-40 WD-40 (Water Displacement, 40th formula) is an American manufacturer and the trademark of a penetrating oil manufactured by the WD-40 Company based in San Diego, California. Its formula was invented for the Rocket Chemical Company in 1953, ...

References

{{Reflist Supercars Championship races Sports competitions in Victoria (state) Motorsport at Phillip Island Recurring sporting events established in 1971 Touring car races Auto races in Australia