Phillip Island's connection to long-distance production car racing predates the Phillip Island 500 itself. From 1960 to 1962, the circuit hosted the Armstrong 500, a 500-mile race that eventually evolved and relocated to Bathurst to become the Bathurst 1000. The 500 name and concept thus have deep roots in the circuit's history.
The event's first dedicated incarnation ran from 1971 to 1977. The 1971 and 1972 races were open to Group E Series Production Touring Cars, before the demise of that category saw a transition to Group C Touring Car regulations. The race counted toward the Australian Manufacturers' Championship from 1971 to 1975, and towards both the Australian Championship of Makes and the Australian Touring Car Championship in 1976 and 1977. Sponsorship and its absence shaped the event's name across different seasons.
Colin Bond and Peter Brock dominated this period, sharing five wins between them across the seven events held. Allan Moffat claimed the 1972 race — the only Phillip Island 500 victory for Ford in the event's history. A dramatic incident followed in 1973 when Moffat crashed his Bathurst 1000-winning Ford XA Falcon GT Hardtop into the lake during the race. He narrowly avoided striking his head on the steering wheel; the experience led Moffat to never race again in an open-faced helmet.
The race was revived in 2008 as a two-driver endurance event for V8 Supercars, replacing the Sandown 500 as the lead-in event to the annual Bathurst 1000. The format featured two short races on Saturday — one for each co-driver — to set the Sunday grid, followed by the traditional 500 km race. The event remained part of the championship for four consecutive years before Sandown was reinstated for the 2012 season.
The Holden Racing Team and Triple Eight Race Engineering dominated this iteration, each winning two of the four events. The 2008 race saw Garth Tander and Mark Skaife win after Jamie Whincup lost the lead through an error. In 2009, Tander — now partnered with Will Davison — passed Craig Lowndes on the final lap as Lowndes suffered a slowly deflating tyre. A rules change for 2010 split primary drivers across their team's two cars, meaning Lowndes and Whincup could not be paired. Whincup lost the lead again through an engine failure, while Lowndes won alongside Skaife, ten years after the pair had won the 1999-era Queensland 500 together.
The 2011 event was also won by Lowndes and Skaife, who led home a Triple Eight one-two finish ahead of Whincup and Andrew Thompson. The victory gave Skaife three Phillip Island 500 wins to match Colin Bond's tally from the 1970s — the only drivers to achieve that milestone.
After years operating as the Phillip Island SuperSprint format, the circuit hosted a return to the Phillip Island 500 name in 2017 with two 250 km races replacing the sprint format. The weekend was notable for a series of tyre failures that disrupted racing, and for Ford ending a 45-year drought at the circuit. The 2018 event followed a similar two-race format before the event reverted to SuperSprint status in 2019.
The Phillip Island 500 has served as an important alternative venue to Bathurst in Australian touring car history, hosting championship-quality racing across different eras. The dominance of Brock and Bond in the 1970s, and Lowndes and Skaife in the revival era, gave the event recurring storylines. The connection between Phillip Island's racing heritage and the genesis of the Bathurst 1000 — through the Armstrong 500 — also gives the circuit and this event a historically significant place in Australian motorsport.