Sandown International Raceway Joins iRacing in June 2022
May 5th, 2022 by Kevin Bobbitt
Sandown International Raceway will become the latest premier Australian motorsport venue to join iRacing’s industry-leading slate of officially licensed tracks. The Melbourne-based circuit will be made available for purchase by all iRacing users, with a planned release in June as part of the 2022 Season 3 build.
“We’re looking forward to welcoming Sandown International Raceway to iRacing’s extensive list of licensed content later this year,” said iRacing executive producer Greg Hill. “Our Australian userbase has been an important part of our growth for quite some time, and we’re excited to welcome the longtime home of one of Supercars’ most popular events. We’re looking forward to adding it to our Supercars calendars each season, as well as those for a number of other popular iRacing series!”
Opened in 1962, Sandown made an immediate splash when it brought in the world’s premier drivers for the Sandown International Cup that March. Jack Brabham, John Surtees, and Bruce McLaren comprised the inaugural podium for the open-wheel race, while names like Stirling Moss and Jim Clark were also on the entry list. The track held its original layout until 1984, when an infield section was added to meet minimum track length requirements to host World Sportscar Championship events; eventually, that layout evolved into the current 13-turn, 1.928-mile (3.104 km) course used today.
The Sandown 500 is the track’s premier event, contested by numerous divisions since its first running as a six-hour race in 1964 and currently raced by the Supercars championship. The track also hosted six occurrences of the Australian Grand Prix before the event joined the World Driver’s Championship calendar. Currently, Sandown hosts five event weekends per year, comprised of both modern and historic sports car and open-wheel racing machinery.
Sandown International Raceway is planned to make its iRacing debut in 2022 Season 3.