Drivers that did the Sandown/Bathurst double

Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup head to Mount Panorama armed with a shot at a rare piece of Australian motorsport history — winning the Sandown/Bathurst double.

Sandown and Bathurst have been fixtures of the Aussie motorsport scene for the best part of six decades, with tradition restored in 2023 as endurance racing returned to the historic Melbourne venue.

Feeney and Whincup combined to lead over 120 laps on the day, with Whincup scoring his fifth Sandown 500 victory and third straight, each time with a different co-driver.

Supercars Hall of Famer Whincup, now 40, is one of just eight drivers in history to win the Sandown and Bathurst enduros in the same year. He was also the last, with Craig Lowndes in 2007.

Sandown emerged as the traditional lead-in to Bathurst towards the 1970s, with Allan Moffat first to achieve the double in 1970. Between 1970 and 1975, Sandown was held over a 250-mile distance before it was rebranded in 1976 with the metric measurement of 400 kilometres. 

Moffat was peerless in 1970, winning both races from pole position, before winning his first of four Australian Touring Car Championship titles in 1973.

Sandown and Bathurst, however, have been owned by the late Peter Brock. Brock achieved the double five times, first in 1975, before doing it again in 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1984.

Where he won Sandown on his own in the 1970s, Brock was victorious at the Mountain with Brian Sampson (1975), before reeling off three straight with Jim Richards (1978-80).

Brock and Larry Perkins were the first combination to win both races, with Sandown becoming a two-driver, 500 kilometre race in 1984. The 500km/1000km double has happened just five times since.

Dick Johnson and John Bowe took out both races in their Shell FB Falcon in 1994, the latter race featuring a famous late battle between seasoned pro Bowe and a rookie Lowndes. Johnson and Bowe made it hard for themselves, winning Sandown from 15th (which remains a record) and Bathurst from 10th.

It was a stark contrast to 1996, when Lowndes and Murphy won Sandown and Bathurst from pole position. It came in a year Lowndes won 16 championship races, a record that stood for 23 years.

The most recent instance of the Sandown/Bathurst double came in 2007, when Lowndes and Whincup reiterated their standing as the dominant enduro pairing of the first decade of the 20th century.

Between 2006 and 2009, the Lowndes/Whincup combo delivered three Bathurst wins (2006-08), a Sandown victory (2007), Sandown podium (2006) and narrow defeats at the Phillip Island 500km race in 2008 and 2009.

The ‘500' moved back to Sandown in 2012 after a four-year stint at Phillip Island, and drivers have failed to achieve the double since. Whincup/Paul Dumbrell (2013) and Mark Winterbottom/Steve Owen (2015) have come closest, finishing second in Bathurst after winning at Sandown.

Between 1999 and 2002, Queensland Raceway hosted a 500km enduro. It’s important to note that Garth Tander and Will Davison won both races in 2009. No pairing was able to pull off the Queensland/Bathurst double.

Should the #88 Red Bull Ampol Camaro win on October 8, Feeney would become the youngest driver to achieve the double, beating Lowndes’ marker from 1996. 

Still aged 20, Feeney recently became the youngest ever Sandown 500, and would be the second youngest Bathurst winner after Rick Kelly, who was still 20 when he won the 2003 Great Race.

Drivers that did the Sandown/Bathurst double