With the demise of Sandown International Motor Raceway seemingly impending, should Supercars make the most of its time left with the circuit?
It’s hard to believe after the weekend’s Sandown SuperSprint that the Repco Supercars Championship wasn’t going to race at the Springvale facility this year.
Shane van Gisbergen may have swept all three races, but unpredictable weather and a high degradation surface, coupled with a SuperSprint format made for an exciting two-day event.
Sandown’s return to the calendar came as a result of the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix being pushed back to November, forcing Supercars to use its wildcard.
The circuit, which surrounds a horse track, is one of Australian touring car racing’s longest-serving facilities and one of the championship’s true old-school circuits.
For a time, Sandown was home to not one but two major touring car events.
The now-defunct Sandown 500 traces its lineage back to 1964 when it was a six-hour production car race.
The endurance event went through various guises as a three-hour race, a 400km race, and the more commonly known 500km race.
The sprint event has also been a common fixture, which dates back to 1965.
More recently, the sprint and endurance events have been used interchangeably by Supercars.
Last year marked the first season since 1990 that Sandown hadn’t featured on the Supercars Championship calendar, a notable casualty due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The future of the 3.1km circuit has long been up in the air amid talks the circuit will eventually be bulldozed and used for housing.
The circuit is awkwardly located in the midst of suburbia and its use as a motorsport facility has been significantly hamstrung to just a handful of events each year.
Supercars wasn’t going to return in 2021 even with the pandemic largely in its rearview mirror.
After the championship aced its return to Sandown with its SuperSprint format, should Supercars make Sandown a regular fixture for 2022 and beyond?
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