Venue Sandown Raceway First held 1965 Laps 39 | Number of times held 33 Last held 2011 Distance 120 km | |
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The Sandown Challenge was a V8 Supercar motor racing event held at Sandown Raceway in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was held in various years from 1965 to 2011.
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History
Opened in 1962, Sandown Raceway has traditionally been known as the host of endurance races, the first of which was held in 1964, an event which later evolved into the Sandown 500 event. As well as this, Sandown has a long history of hosting sprint rounds of the championship. Sandown held its first championship sprint round in 1965, as the only event of the 1965 Australian Touring Car Championship, but would not hold another championship event until 1970, when the series expanded to seven rounds. Since then, in various forms and with the exception of 1975, 1990 and 1993, Sandown has been included in every running of the Australian Touring Car Championship, which later became known as V8 Supercars. In fact, Sandown has hosted more championship rounds than any other circuit. In many of these years, Sandown hosted both a sprint and endurance event, while it also hosted the season-ending V8 Ultimate event in 2001 and 2002. In recent years, the Sandown 500 has become part of the championship calendar, and as such, the necessity for Sandown to also host a sprint race has diminished. As a result of this, Sandown hosted its last sprint round in 2011, with the Sandown 500 returning in 2012.