2002 Sandown 500

The 2002 Sandown 500 was an Australian motor race for Production Cars^[1] which drew its entries from those competing in the Australian Nations Cup Championship and Australian GT Production Car Championship. It was the second Sandown 500 since the former touring car endurance race was revived for production cars and would be the last as Sandown would regain the rights to the 500 kilometre V8 Supercar race the following year.

Track map of the Sandown Raceway

The race, which was the 35th Sandown 500 endurance race^[2] was held at Sandown Raceway in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on 8 September 2002. It was won by Paul Stokell and Anthony Tratt driving a Lamborghini Diablo GTR.

Classes

Cars competed in four classes:^[3]

• Nations Cup Group 1
• Nations Cup Group 2
• GT Production Class A
• GT Production Class B

Sandown 500 Top Gun Challenge

Paul Stokell and Anthony Tratt won the race driving a Lamborghini Diablo GTR similar to that pictured above

After qualifying was completed the fastest ten cars competed in a one-lap runoff for the top ten grid positions. Runoff results as follows:^[4]

Weather conditions were threatening when the runoff started. Former Australian rules football player turned media personality Sam Newman, who by his own admission was not even a good race driver, let alone a professional one, was the first driver out to set a time in the runoff in his Class G2 Ferrari 360 Challenge. As it turned out, his was the only lap run in dry conditions as the rain started almost as he crossed the finish line. His lap ended up being the fastest by 6.0448 seconds.

Pos	No	Entrant	Driver	Car	Time
1	17	Prancing Horse Racing	Sam Newman	Ferrari 360 Challenge	1:18.5170
2	5	V.I.P. Petfoods (Aust) P/L	Jim Richards	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Type 996	1:24.5618
3	54	Prancing Horse Racing	Paul Morris	Ferrari 360 Challenge	1:25.6568
4	888	Prancing Horse Racing	John Bowe	Ferrari 360 N-GT	1:26.3881
5	88	Prancing Horse Racing	Brad Jones	Ferrari 360 N-GT	1:26.8075
6	2	Crazy John's Team Lamborghini Australia	Paul Stokell	Lamborghini Diablo GTR	1:27.2870
7	3	Falken Tyres Fitzgerald Racing	Peter Fitzgerald	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Type 996	1:28.0665
8	7	D'arcy Russell Racing	D'arcy Russell	Chrysler Viper ACR	1:34.1841
9	34	King Springs Delphi	Mark King	Mitsubishi Lancer RS-E Evo VII	1:41.5410
DNS	300	Floyd Motorsport	Peter Floyd	HSV VX GTS 300kW

Official results

Cars failing to complete 75% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC). Race results as follows:^[5]

Pos	Class	No	Entrant	Drivers	Chassis	Laps
					Engine
1	G1	2	Crazy John's Team Lamborghini Australia	Paul Stokell Anthony Tratt	Lamborghini Diablo GTR	161
					Lamborghini 5.7L V12
2	G1	5	V.I.P. Petfoods (Aust) P/L	Jim Richards Tony Quinn	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Type 996	161
					Porsche 3.8L Flat-6
3	G1	888	Prancing Horse Racing	John Bowe Steve Beards	Ferrari 360 N-GT	160
					Ferrari 3.6L V8
4	G1	3	Falken Tyres Fitzgerald Racing	Peter Fitzgerald Matthew Coleman	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Type 996	158
					Porsche 3.8L Flat-6
5	G2	54	Prancing Horse Racing	Paul Morris John Teulan	Ferrari 360 Challenge	155
					Ferrari 3.6L V8
6	G2	17	Prancing Horse Racing	Sam Newman Scott Shearman	Ferrari 360 Challenge	153
					Ferrari 3.6L V8
7	A	57	Corio Auto Parts Plus	Graham Alexander John Wodberry	Mitsubishi Lancer RS-E Evo V	147
					Mitsubishi 4G63 2.0L Turbo I4
8	A	34	King Springs Delphi	Mark King Geoff Full	Mitsubishi Lancer RS-E Evo VII	146
					Mitsubishi 4G63 2.0L Turbo I4
9	A	96	Don Pulver	Don Pulver Mark Brame	Nissan 200SX Spec-R	146
					Nissan SR20DET 2.0L Turbo I4
10	A	18	Coopers	Michael Brock Gary Young	Mitsubishi Lancer RS-E Evo VII	144
					Mitsubishi 4G63 2.0L Turbo I4
11	A	38	Castran Gilbert Pty Ltd	Dennis Gilbert Trevor McGuiness	Mitsubishi Lancer RS-E Evo VI	141
					Mitsubishi 4G63 2.0L Turbo I4
12	A	1	Century Batteries	Gary Deane Grant Denyer Brett Peters	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	140
					Subaru 2.0L Turbo Flat-4
13	A	19	Yamaha	Trevor Haines Bob Hughes Ed Aitken	Ford Tickford TE50	139
					Ford Windsor 5.6L V8
14	A	220	Donut King	Tony Alford John Grounds Michael Robinson	Nissan 200SX Spec-R	137
					Nissan SR20DET 2.0L Turbo I4
15	G1	8	QBE Insurance	John Smith Wayne Cooper Wayne Boatwright	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Type 996	135
					Porsche 3.8L Flat-6
16	B	28	Ross Palmer Motorsport	James Phillip Ken Talbert	Honda S2000	133
					Honda F20C 2.0L I4
17	B	13	Osborne Motorsport	Trevor Keene Robert Rubis	Toyota MR2 Bathurst	131
					Toyota 3S-GE 2.0L I4
18	A	200	Donut King	Greg Haysom Rodney Woods Craig Dean	Nissan 200SX Spec-R	124
					Nissan SR20DET 2.0L Turbo I4
DNF	A	222	Donut King	Len Cave Matt Turner	Nissan 200SX Spec-R	126
					Nissan SR20DET 2.0L Turbo I4
DNF	B	66	Nilsson Motor Sport	Klark Quinn Mike Kilpatrick Andrew Haberfield	Honda Integra Type-R	107
					Honda B18C 1.8L I4
NC	A	23	Mitsubishi Electric	Steve Knight Andrew Taplin	Mitsubishi Lancer RS-E Evo VI	98
					Mitsubishi 4G63 2.0L Turbo I4
DNF	G1	88	Prancing Horse Racing	Maher Algadrie Brad Jones	Ferrari 360 N-GT	88
					Ferrari 3.6L V8
NC	G1	7	D'arcy Russell Racing	D'arcy Russell Darren Palmer	Chrysler Viper ACR	82
					Dodge 8.0L V10
DNF	A	47	MGC Racing	Mark Cohen Philip Polites	HSV VX GTS 300kW	79
					Chevrolet LS1 5.7L V8
DNF	B	31	Osborne Motorsport	Neil Dunkley Steve Drake	Toyota MR2 Bathurst	64
					Toyota 3S-GE 2.0L I4
DNF	A	55	Mortgage House	Barrie Nesbitt David Lawson Mal Rose	HSV VX GTS 300kW	54
					Chevrolet LS1 5.7L V8
DNF	B	44	NEC Projection	Chris Poulton Richard Hing	Mitsubishi FTO	18
					Mitsubishi 6A12 2.0L V6
DNS	A	300	Floyd Motorsport	Peter Floyd Rod Wilson	HSV VX GTS 300kW	0
					Chevrolet LS1 5.7L V8

Statistics

• Provisional Pole Position - #5 Jim Richards - 1:21.4133^[6]
• Pole Position - #17 Sam Newman - 1:18.5170
• Fastest Lap - #5 Jim Richards - 1:13.8765
• Race Average Speed - 139 km/h