The history of three-race Townsville weekends

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: 11 July 2025

For the first time, Supercars will go racing on the Townsville streets on a Friday, but it is not the first three-race weekend at the venue.

Today, a historic 100km Friday afternoon race will kick off the 2025 edition of the Townsville 500 before the traditional pair of 200km races over the weekend.

Since the popular North Queensland event started back in 2009, it will only be the fifth time it has been staged as a three-race weekend.

2014

The first was a one-off in 2014 when the street circuit formats were tweaked to include a second twilight sprint on the Saturday night.

The first three-race weekend was dominated by red powerhouses Triple Eight and Holden Racing Team.

The opening race was a dramatic one, but had a familiar feel as Jamie Whincup took a sixth of a record 12 wins at the circuit.

WATCH RACE HERE

However, it was no easy feat as the #1 rose from 10th on the grid and avoided some opening lap drama.

Lowndes’ tough weekend started when he brought out the first Safety Car by spearing into the Turn 5 tyres, while the other stoppage occurred due to a clash between Jack Perkins and Todd Kelly through the Turn 2 kink.

Whincup completed his charge from 10th to first within the first 15 laps and led home Tander and Davison.

One year after HRT scored a breakthrough win on the streets of Townsville, history repeated as Tander led Courtney home in another one-two.

WATCH RACE HERE

The pair started down in 11th and eighth on the grid, respectively, but gained ground with longer first stints.

Tander hit the lead on Lap 10 after Fabian Coulthard ran wide at Turn 3 on cold tyres.

Courtney kept Coulthard at bay after a debris-enforced Safety Car mid-race.

With the 250km race back on the centre stage on Sunday, there was a familiar feel to the 2014 finale.

WATCH RACE HERE

Whincup once again reasserted his dominance by claiming a strategy-dominated affair.

Whincup and Tander controlled the race and wrestled for the lead before going head to head on Lap 70 where the Triple Eight driver prevailed.

Although he could not wrestle the championship lead from Mark Winterbottom, it proved to be an important weekend in his pursuit of a sixth title and fourth straight.

Jason Bright started from pole, but was pinged for spinning wheels in the pits, while Lowndes’ horror weekend carried on with many issues, relegating him to 23rd.

2020

The traditional two-race format in Townsville returned immediately after 2014, and it was not until the arrival of COVID-19 and the necessity to fill the schedule that the three-race weekend was brought back.

In a season full of double headers, two of the 10 rounds were held at the Townsville street circuit and both were triple treats.

Whincup’s reign on the Townsville streets remained as he started things with back-to-back victories.

Bouncing back from his only Townsville DNF in 2019, he controlled the opening two races.

He dominated the opener from start to finsh as Turn 2 created opening lap chaos as Shane van Gisbergen, Anton De Pasquale, Macauley Jones, Todd Hazelwood, Andre Heimgartner, Rick Kelly, Jack Le Brocq and Zane Goddard were all caught up.

Waters was able to hunt down Mostert in the fight for best of the rest behind Whincup.

The second race was rinse and repeat with Whincup driving 7s clear as Mostert overcame Waters, while SVG put in a charge to the podium.

Scott McLaughlin showed his hand by taking Sunday’s main event despite a tense battle with Waters.

Although the DJR driver led the majority of the race, the Monster Mustang was all over him across the first stint before the #17 skipped clear.

Whincup ensured he stayed on the podium after Nick Percat showed early speed.

The following weekend, the field was back racing around Reid Park, and McLaughlin again appeared in victory lane.

Again, he led home Waters, but there was no battle on this occasion, with the Tickford driver needing to haul in Whincup, who was knocked off the podium by Mostert.

Todd Hazelwood had high hopes from the third row, but stalled it on the grid, while both Reynolds nd van Gisbergen had significant mechanical gremlins.

This sparked a fire in the belly of the Triple Eight Kiwi and the #97 flew to victory in Race 23 of the season.

SVG got a flying start from fourth on the grid, taking Waters off the start and McLaughlin around the outside at Turn 2.

He then needed seven laps to snatch the lead from pole sitter Percat and cruised to an 8s win over McLaughlin.

The success was also Triple Eight’s 200th Supercars victory.

The sixth and final race of the 2021 double header was easily the most memorable.

Van Gisbergen produced another astonishing drive from 12th on the grid, which is the lowest victorious starting spot in event history.

But more impressively, the Kiwi was as low as ninth with nine laps to go but he lit it up on fresh tyres and soared to second within five laps.

After barging his way through the pack, van Gisbergen was waved through by Whincup to second to launch an attack on McLaughlin.

He made the winning move at Turn 11 as McLaughlin “had nothing left” on old tyres and also could not stop Whincup from making it a Triple Eight one-two.

2021

A year later the Townsville double header returned, but only the second leg was run across three races.

After van Gisbergen swept the Townsville 500 the previous weekend, everyone was trying to catch the #97 and Tickford came to the party.

De Pasquale and Waters wrestled hard for the lead early as van Gisbergen was lucky to avoid a loose Zane Goddard at Turn 2 and a spun Macauley Jones at the following corner.

De Pasquale led early but was jumped by Waters during the cycle of stops, where Whincup lost a podium for speeding.

The Tickford driver ended up securing his first of three Townsville triumphs.

Triple Eight hit back in the second sprint with Whincup leading van Gisbergen after the teammates covered the front row.

For the second race in a row, a BJR spun at Turn 3 on the opening lap with Percat being rotated on this occasion.

After van Gisbergen snatched the lead during the stops, which saw the Triple Eight teammates go to war on Lap 24.

The pair collided at the final corner and raced side by side down the entire main straight where the #97 retained the lead on the inside.

This proved to be the defining moment as van Gisbergen took a hard-fought victory.

The finale was a thriller as van Gisbergen and Waters went head to head.

The pair lined up on the front row and it was on when lights went out as htey charged to Turn 1 and the Tickford driver went deep to lead as Hazelwood raced hard behind, but could not stop Davison from snaring third.

Despite Waters having an eight tenth margin on the opening lap, SVG came from nowhere and caught the Monster Mustang napping at the final turn of Lap 5.

Waters reclaimed track position after stopping under a Safety Car caused by a Jones crash at Turn 10.

Davison also jumped SVG, but the Kiwi quickly picked him off.

This set up a thrilling seven-lap sprint for victory, and van Gisbergen and Waters battled door to door.

Waters blocked hard for three corners in a row at the start of Lap 33, and it proved critical.

Van Gisbergen was unable to get close enough to launch another attack as Waters scored his second win of the weekend.

The weekend was also notable, given it was one of the few without Niel Crompton behind the microphone with Chad Neylon, Tander and Skaife sharing the calling duties.

2025 Townsville 500

FRIDAY 11th July

9:20am – 9:50am: Supercars Practice 1

11:10am – 11:40am: Supercars Practice 2

1:20pm – 1:50pm: Qualifying, Race 20 (Fox only)

3:40pm: Race 20 (35 laps/100kms) (Fox only)

SATURDAY 12th July

10:00am – 10:30am: Qualifying, Race 21 (Fox only)

12:05pm – 12:40pm: Top Ten Shootout, Race 21 (Fox/Seven)

3:00pm: Race 21 (70 laps/200kms) (Fox/Seven)

SUNDAY 13th July

10:00am – 10:30am: Qualifying, Race 22 (Fox only)

12:05pm – 12:40pm: Top Ten Shootout, Race 22 (Fox/Seven)

3:00pm: Race 22 (70 laps/200kms)(Fox/Seven)

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