1965 Armstrong 500

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]

1965 Armstrong 500
Previous: 1964 Next: 1966
The winning Ford Cortina GT500 of Seton & Bosworth

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 another Ford car dealer 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

The smallest class was for cars under £920. It was made of Datsun 1300, Fiat 850, 1.5 litre Ford Cortina 220, Morris Mini de Luxe and Vauxhall Viva, although all the Datsun's were withdrawn prior to race start due to wheel cracking failures.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 Team Drivers Car Laps
1 D 1 11 Fairfield Motors Pty Ltd Barry Seton
Midge Bosworth
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 130
2 D 2 4 Grawill Motors Pty Ltd Bruce McPhee
Barry Mulholland
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 130
3 C 1 29 BMC Australia Brian Foley
Peter Manton
Morris Cooper S 129
4 C 2 21 L and D Motors Pty Ltd Lindsay Little
Stan Pomroy
Morris Cooper S 129
5 D 3 12 Hunt Bros. (Sydney) Motors Pty Ltd Jack Murray
Bill McLachlan
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 128
6 C 3 30 BMC Australia Paddy Hopkirk
Timo Mäkinen
Morris Cooper S 128
7 C 4 18 Marque Motors Bill Stanley
Ralph Sach
Morris Cooper S 128
8 C 5 19 College Auto Parts Ray Kaleda
Graham Moore
Morris Cooper S 125
9 C 6 24 Killara Motor Garage Greg Cusack
Bob Holden
Morris Cooper S 125
10 D 4 7 Australian Motor Industries Max Stewart
Bob Young
Triumph 2000 124
11 C 7 26 Ford Motor Company of Australia Barry Arentz
Geoff Russell
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT 124
12 D 5 3 British & Continental Cars P/L Bill Ford
Des West
Volvo 122S 121
13 D 6 2 Continental & General Distributors Pty Ltd Fred Sutherland
Allan Mottram
Studebaker Lark 120
14 A 1 45 Ford Motor Company of Australia Harry Firth
John Reaburn
Ford Cortina Mk.I 220 119
15 A 2 54 Ray Morris Motors Pty Ltd Bruce Maher
Ray Morris
Ford Cortina Mk.I 220 119
16 D 7 5 Graham Ward
Barry Collerson
Volvo 122S 118
17 B 1 40 Ford Motor Company of Australia Glyn Scott
Max Volkers
Ford Cortina Mk.I 240 118
18 B 2 39 Australian Motor Industries Brian Reed
Des Kelly
Toyota Corona 118
19 A 3 53 H and G Taylor John Hall
Herb Taylor
Ford Cortina Mk.I 220 118
20 B 3 41 Australian Motor Industries Bill Buckle
Neil McKay
Toyota Corona 117
21 C 8 22 Advanx (Gosford) Motor Service Alton Boddenberg
Digby Cooke
Chrysler Valiant 116
22 C 9 31 Smith Auto Accessories Pty Ltd Don Smith
Bruce Stewart
Holden HD X2 116
23 B 4 36 Australian Motor Industries Brian Sampson
Ern Abbott
Toyota Corona 116
24 B 5 29 BMC Australia Barry Ferguson
Charlie Smith
Morris Cooper 115
25 A 4 43 Griffith Barke Service Ken Harrison
Bruce Hodgson
Ford Cortina Mk.I 220 114
26 A 5 52 G. Shoesmith Gary Shoesmith
Tony Robards
Vauxhall Viva 113
27 D 8 10 Needham Motors Pty Ltd Warren Weldon
Bill Slattery
Studebaker Lark 112
28 A 6 55 BMC Australia Kevin Bartlett
Ron Haylen
Morris Mini de Luxe 111
29 A 7 47 Bamar Engineering John Marchiori
Arnold Ahrenfeld
Ford Cortina Mk.I 220 111
30 B 6 32 John Rhodin Pty Ltd Arthur Treloar
Colin Bond
Isuzu Bellett 1500 109
31 A 8 50 P. Taylor
T. Egan
Morris Mini de Luxe 109
32 B 7 34 John Connolly
Rex Emmett
Renault R8 108
33 A 9 49 Bill Daly
Ray Heffernan
Fiat 850 106
34 D 9 6 Canberra Speed Shop Peter Brown
Ray Gulson
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 106
35 A 10 44 BMC Australia Steve Harvey
Laurie Stewart
Morris Mini de Luxe 105
36 B 8 37 Gordon Stewart's Sports Car Centre Peter Cray
Don Holland
Morris Cooper 99
37 D 10 13 R. Salter Bob Salter
Ken Wiggins
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 94
38 C 10 28 Toowong Motors-J. Thomas and Sons Evan Thomas
Lionel Williams
Holden HD X2 84
39 B 9 35 George Forrest
Frank Hann
Morris Cooper 81
40 D 11 8 D. Walker Carl Kennedy
David Walker
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 64
DNF D 23 Bill Barnett
Don Johnston
Humber Vogue 106
DNF D 16 Fred Otten
Mick Crampton
Fiat 2300 65
DNF D 9 Keith Russell
Colin Wear
Triumph 2000 60
DNF D 14 Ford Motor Company of Australia Bob Jane
George Reynolds
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 58
DNF D 15 Belvedere Motors Ron Hodgson
Bob Beasley
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 54
DNF A 56 Bill Burns
Brian Lawler
Fiat 850 54
DNF A 58 Don Mudd
Tony Kavanagh
Vauxhall Viva 48
DNF B 38 Brian McGrath
David Frazer
Renault R8 42
DNF B 33 Ron Clarke
John Prisk
Morris Cooper 25
DNF C 25 BMC Australia John French
John Harvey
Morris Cooper S 24
DNF D 17 A. Davis Arthur Davis
Paul Mander
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 14
DNF C 20 Ian Cook
Ken Lindsay
Morris Cooper S 11
DNF C 27 Doug Chivas
Phil Barnes
Morris Cooper S 10
DNF A 59 Trevor Meehan
Pat Holmes
Fiat 850 6
DSQ D 1 Ford Motor Company of Australia Ian Geoghegan
Leo Geoghegan
Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500 130
DNS A 46 Scuderia Veloce
Datsun Racing Team
Spencer Martin
Bill Brown
Datsun 1300
DNS A 48 Scuderia Veloce
Datsun Racing Team
Tony Simmons
Mike Champion
Datsun 1300
DNS A 51 Scuderia Veloce
Datsun Racing Team
Bruce Demuth
Bill Orr
Datsun 1300

Statistics

  • Fastest Lap - #29 Brian Foley - 3:13.7 (lap record)
  • Average Speed - 110 km/h
  • Race Time - 7:16:45.1

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

Further reading

  • Australian Motor Manual, December 1965, page 47
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