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.
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.
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