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Bluebird, Fiat 850, 1.5 litre Ford Cortina 220, Morris Mini de Luxe and Vauxhall Viva, although all the Datsuns were withdrawn prior to race start due to wheel cracking failures.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	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		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		Morris Cooper S	128
8	C	5	19	College Auto Parts		Morris Cooper S	125
9	C	6	24	Killara Motor Garage	Bob Holden	Morris Cooper S	125
10	D	4	7	Australian Motor Industries	Max Stewart	Triumph 2000	124
11	C	7	26	Ford Motor Company of Australia		Ford Cortina Mk.I GT	124
12	D	5	3	British & Continental Cars P/L		Volvo 122S	121
13	D	6	2	Continental & General Distributors Pty Ltd		Studebaker Lark	120
14	A	1	45	Ford Motor Company of Australia	Harry Firth	Ford Cortina Mk.I 220	119
15	A	2	54	Ray Morris Motors Pty Ltd		Ford Cortina Mk.I 220	119
16	D	7	5	British & Continental Cars P/L		Volvo 122S	118
17	B	1	40	Ford Motor Company of Australia		Ford Cortina Mk.I 240	118
18	B	2	39	Australian Motor Industries		Toyota Corona	118
19	A	3	53	H and G Taylor		Ford Cortina Mk.I 220	118
20	B	3	41	Australian Motor Industries	Bill Buckle	Toyota Corona	117
21	C	8	22	Advanx (Gosford) Motor Service		Chrysler Valiant	116
22	C	9	31	Smith Auto Accessories Pty Ltd	Bruce Stewart	Holden HD X2	116
23	B	4	36	Australian Motor Industries	Brian Sampson	Toyota Corona	116
24	B	5	42	BMC Australia		Morris Cooper	115
25	A	4	43	Griffith Barke Service		Ford Cortina Mk.I 220	114
26	A	5	52	G. Shoesmith		Vauxhall Viva	113
27	D	8	10	Needham Motors Pty Ltd		Studebaker Lark	112
28	A	6	55	BMC Australia	Kevin Bartlett	Morris Mini de Luxe	111
29	A	7	47	Bamar Engineering		Ford Cortina Mk.I 220	111
30	B	6	32	John Rhodin Pty Ltd	Colin Bond	Isuzu Bellett 1500	109
31	A	8	50	Vaughan and Lane Pty Ltd	P. Taylor T. Egan	Morris Mini de Luxe	109
32	B	7	34	Rex Emmett		Renault R8	108
33	A	9	49	W and N Howes		Fiat 850	106
34	D	9	6	Canberra Speed Shop		Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500	106
35	A	10	44	BMC Australia		Morris Mini de Luxe	105
36	B	8	37	Vaughan and Lane Pty Ltd		Morris Cooper	99
37	D	10	13	R. Salter		Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500	94
38	C	10	28	Toowong Motors-J. Thomas and Sons	Lionel Williams	Holden HD X2	84
39	B	9	35	Vern Potts BMC		Morris Cooper	81
40	D	11	8	D. Walker	David Walker	Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500	64
DNF	D		23	Alex Strachan Motors		Humber Vogue	106
DNF	D		16	Otten Motors		Fiat 2300	65
DNF	D		9	K. Russell		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		Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500	54
DNF	A		56	W. Burns		Fiat 850	54
DNF	A		58	T. Kavanagh		Vauxhall Viva	48
DNF	B		38	Renno Motors		Renault R8	42
DNF	B		33	M. Martin		Morris Cooper	25
DNF	C		25	BMC Australia	John French John Harvey	Morris Cooper S	24
DNF	D		17	A. Davis		Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500	14
DNF	C		20	Vaughan and Lane Pty Ltd		Morris Cooper S	11
DNF	C		27	Vaughan and Lane Pty Ltd	Doug Chivas	Morris Cooper S	10
DNF	A		59	Rolls Motors		Fiat 850	6
DSQ	D		1	Ford Motor Company of Australia	Ian Geoghegan Leo Geoghegan	Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500	130
DNS	A		46	Nissan Motor Distributors[2]	Spencer Martin	Datsun Bluebird[2]
DNS	A		48	Nissan Motor Distributors[2]		Datsun Bluebird[2]
DNS	A		51	Nissan Motor Distributors[2]		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[]

Further reading[]

• Australian Motor Manual, December 1965, page 47

External links[]

• 1965 Armstrong 500 race summary, race results and video, www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au
• Bathurst 1965 images, autopics.com.au