1965 Armstrong 500

Layout of the Mount Panorama Circuit (1938–1986)
The winning Ford Cortina GT500 of Seton & Bosworth

The 1965 Armstrong 500 was the sixth running of the Bathurst 500 touring car race. It was held on 3 October 1965 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. The race was open to Australian assembled or manufactured vehicles and, for the first time, to imported vehicles, of which at least 100 examples and 250 examples respectively had been registered in Australia.[1] Cars competed in four classes based on the purchase price of the vehicle in Australian pounds. Prize money was on offer only for class placings however the Armstrong Trophy was presented to the entrant of the outright winning car, this being the first time in the history of the event that there had been an official award for the outright winner.[1]

The outright winning car was the Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 entered by Fairfield Motors and driven by Barry Seton and emerging young driver Midge Bosworth. Second was the Grawill Motors entered Cortina driven mainly by Bruce McPhee with one lap driven by Barry Mulholland. Third, and one lap behind the two Cortina was the factory entered Morris Cooper S of Brian Foley and Peter Manton.

Class structure

Class A

Class A was for cars under £920. It was contested by Datsun Bluebird, Fiat 850, 1.5 litre Ford Cortina 220, Morris Mini de Luxe and Vauxhall Viva, although all the Datsuns were withdrawn prior to race start due to wheel cracking failures.

Class B

The £921 to £1,020 class featured 1.5 litre Ford Cortina 240, Isuzu Bellett, Morris Cooper, Renault R8 and Toyota Corona.

Class C

The £1,021 to £1,300 class was dominated by the Morris Cooper S, but also contained Chrysler Valiant, Ford Cortina GT and Holden HD X2.

Class D

The £1,301 to £2,000 class featured the first of what came to be known as the 'Bathurst specials', the Ford Cortina GT500 named for the race. The class also contained Fiat 2300, Humber Vogue, Studebaker Lark, Triumph 2000 and Volvo 122.

Results

Pos Class Class
pos
No Entrant Drivers Car Laps
1 D 1 11 Fairfield Motors Pty Ltd Australia Barry Seton
Australia Midge Bosworth
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 130
2 D 2 4 Grawill Motors Pty Ltd Australia Bruce McPhee
Australia Barry Mulholland
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 130
3 C 1 29 BMC Australia Australia Brian Foley
Australia Peter Manton
Morris Cooper S 129
4 C 2 21 L and D Motors Pty Ltd Australia Lindsay Little
Australia Stan Pomroy
Morris Cooper S 129
5 D 3 12 Hunt Bros. (Sydney) Motors Pty Ltd Australia Jack Murray
Australia Bill McLachlan
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 128
6 C 3 30 BMC Australia United Kingdom Paddy Hopkirk
Finland Timo Mäkinen
Morris Cooper S 128
7 C 4 18 Marque Motors Australia Bill Stanley
Australia Ralph Sach
Morris Cooper S 128
8 C 5 19 College Auto Parts Australia Ray Kaleda
Australia Graham Moore
Morris Cooper S 125
9 C 6 24 Killara Motor Garage Australia Greg Cusack
Australia Bob Holden
Morris Cooper S 125
10 D 4 7 Australian Motor Industries Australia Max Stewart
Australia Bob Young
Triumph 2000 124
11 C 7 26 Ford Motor Company of Australia Australia Barry Arentz
Australia Geoff Russell
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT 124
12 D 5 3 British & Continental Cars P/L Australia Bill Ford
Australia Des West
Volvo 122S 121
13 D 6 2 Continental & General Distributors Pty Ltd Australia Fred Sutherland
Australia Allan Mottram
Studebaker Lark 120
14 A 1 45 Ford Motor Company of Australia Australia Harry Firth
Australia John Reaburn
Ford Cortina Mk.I 220 119
15 A 2 54 Ray Morris Motors Pty Ltd Australia Bruce Maher
Australia Ray Morris
Ford Cortina Mk.I 220 119
16 D 7 5 British & Continental Cars P/L Australia Graham Ward
Australia Barry Collerson
Volvo 122S 118
17 B 1 40 Ford Motor Company of Australia Australia Glyn Scott
Australia Max Volkers
Ford Cortina Mk.I 240 118
18 B 2 39 Australian Motor Industries Australia Brian Reed
Australia Des Kelly
Toyota Corona 118
19 A 3 53 H and G Taylor Australia John Hall
Australia Herb Taylor
Ford Cortina Mk.I 220 118
20 B 3 41 Australian Motor Industries Australia Bill Buckle
Australia Neil McKay
Toyota Corona 117
21 C 8 22 Advanx (Gosford) Motor Service Australia Alton Boddenberg
Australia Digby Cooke
Chrysler Valiant 116
22 C 9 31 Smith Auto Accessories Pty Ltd Australia Don Smith
Australia Bruce Stewart
Holden HD X2 116
23 B 4 36 Australian Motor Industries Australia Brian Sampson
Australia Ern Abbott
Toyota Corona 116
24 B 5 42 BMC Australia Australia Barry Ferguson
Australia Charlie Smith
Morris Cooper 115
25 A 4 43 Griffith Barke Service Australia Ken Harrison
Australia Bruce Hodgson
Ford Cortina Mk.I 220 114
26 A 5 52 G. Shoesmith Australia Gary Shoesmith
Australia Tony Robards
Vauxhall Viva 113
27 D 8 10 Needham Motors Pty Ltd Australia Warren Weldon
Australia Bill Slattery
Studebaker Lark 112
28 A 6 55 BMC Australia Australia Kevin Bartlett
Australia Ron Haylen
Morris Mini de Luxe 111
29 A 7 47 Bamar Engineering Australia John Marchiori
Australia Arnold Ahrenfeld
Ford Cortina Mk.I 220 111
30 B 6 32 John Rhodin Pty Ltd Australia Arthur Treloar
Australia Colin Bond
Isuzu Bellett 1500 109
31 A 8 50 Vaughan and Lane Pty Ltd Australia P. Taylor
Australia T. Egan
Morris Mini de Luxe 109
32 B 7 34 Rex Emmett Australia John Connolly
Australia Rex Emmett
Renault R8 108
33 A 9 49 W and N Howes Australia Bill Daly
Australia Ray Heffernan
Fiat 850 106
34 D 9 6 Canberra Speed Shop Australia Peter Brown
Australia Ray Gulson
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 106
35 A 10 44 BMC Australia Australia Steve Harvey
Australia Laurie Stewart
Morris Mini de Luxe 105
36 B 8 37 Vaughan and Lane Pty Ltd Australia Peter Cray
Australia Don Holland
Morris Cooper 99
37 D 10 13 R. Salter Australia Bob Salter
Australia Ken Wiggins
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 94
38 C 10 28 Toowong Motors-J. Thomas and Sons Australia Evan Thomas
Australia Lionel Williams
Holden HD X2 84
39 B 9 35 Vern Potts BMC Australia George Forrest
Australia Frank Hann
Morris Cooper 81
40 D 11 8 D. Walker Australia Carl Kennedy
Australia David Walker
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 64
DNF D 23 Alex Strachan Motors Australia Bill Barnett
Australia Don Johnston
Humber Vogue 106
DNF D 16 Otten Motors Australia Fred Otten
Australia Mick Crampton
Fiat 2300 65
DNF D 9 K. Russell Australia Keith Russell
Australia Colin Wear
Triumph 2000 60
DNF D 14 Ford Motor Company of Australia Australia Bob Jane
Australia George Reynolds
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 58
DNF D 15 Belvedere Motors Australia Ron Hodgson
Australia Bob Beasley
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 54
DNF A 56 W. Burns Australia Bill Burns
Australia Brian Lawler
Fiat 850 54
DNF A 58 T. Kavanagh Australia Don Mudd
Australia Tony Kavanagh
Vauxhall Viva 48
DNF B 38 Renno Motors Australia Brian McGrath
Australia David Frazer
Renault R8 42
DNF B 33 M. Martin Australia Ron Clarke
Australia John Prisk
Morris Cooper 25
DNF C 25 BMC Australia Australia John French
Australia John Harvey
Morris Cooper S 24
DNF D 17 A. Davis Australia Arthur Davis
Australia Paul Mander
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 14
DNF C 20 Vaughan and Lane Pty Ltd Australia Ian Cook
Australia Ken Lindsay
Morris Cooper S 11
DNF C 27 Vaughan and Lane Pty Ltd Australia Doug Chivas
Australia Phil Barnes
Morris Cooper S 10
DNF A 59 Rolls Motors Australia Trevor Meehan
Australia Pat Holmes
Fiat 850 6
DSQ D 1 Ford Motor Company of Australia Australia Ian Geoghegan
Australia Leo Geoghegan
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 130
DNS A 46 Nissan Motor Distributors[2] Australia Spencer Martin
Australia Bill Brown
Datsun Bluebird[2]
DNS A 48 Nissan Motor Distributors[2] Australia Tony Simmons
Australia Mike Champion
Datsun Bluebird[2]
DNS A 51 Nissan Motor Distributors[2] Australia Bruce Demuth
Australia Bill Orr
Datsun Bluebird[2]

Statistics

  • Fastest Lap – #29 Brian Foley – 3:13.7 (lap record)
  • Average Speed – 110 km/h
  • Race time of first car home – 7:16:45.1[3]

References

  • Greenhalgh, David; Thomas B. Floyd; Bill Tuckey (2000). "1965 Ah-so; maybe next year". Australia's Greatest Motor Race 1960-1999 The first 40 years. Hornsby: Chevron Publishing Group Pty Limited. pp. 130–137 & 453. ISBN 1-875221-12-3.
  1. Australian Motor Manual, August 1965, page 4
  2. Official Entry List, Racing Cars News, October 1965, page 27
  3. Why Cortinas Win, Modern Motor, December 1965, pages 38 to 41 + 66 to 67

Further reading

  • Australian Motor Manual, December 1965, page 47
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