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]

Layout of the Mount Panorama Circuit (1938–1986)
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 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

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Class A

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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Bluebird, Fiat 850, 1.5 litre Ford Cortina 220, Morris Mini de Luxe and Vauxhall Viva, although all the Datsuns were withdrawn prior to race start due to wheel cracking failures.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

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

Class C

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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

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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

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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   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 British & Continental Cars P/L   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 42 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 Vaughan and Lane Pty Ltd   P. Taylor
  T. Egan
Morris Mini de Luxe 109
32 B 7 34 Rex Emmett   John Connolly
  Rex Emmett
Renault R8 108
33 A 9 49 W and N Howes   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 Vaughan and Lane Pty Ltd   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 Vern Potts BMC   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 Alex Strachan Motors   Bill Barnett
  Don Johnston
Humber Vogue 106
DNF D 16 Otten Motors   Fred Otten
  Mick Crampton
Fiat 2300 65
DNF D 9 K. Russell   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 W. Burns   Bill Burns
  Brian Lawler
Fiat 850 54
DNF A 58 T. Kavanagh   Don Mudd
  Tony Kavanagh
Vauxhall Viva 48
DNF B 38 Renno Motors   Brian McGrath
  David Frazer
Renault R8 42
DNF B 33 M. Martin   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 Vaughan and Lane Pty Ltd   Ian Cook
  Ken Lindsay
Morris Cooper S 11
DNF C 27 Vaughan and Lane Pty Ltd   Doug Chivas
  Phil Barnes
Morris Cooper S 10
DNF A 59 Rolls Motors   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 Nissan Motor Distributors[2]   Spencer Martin
  Bill Brown
Datsun Bluebird[2]
DNS A 48 Nissan Motor Distributors[2]   Tony Simmons
  Mike Champion
Datsun Bluebird[2]
DNS A 51 Nissan Motor Distributors[2]   Bruce Demuth
  Bill Orr
Datsun Bluebird[2]

Statistics

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  • 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

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  • 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. ^ a b Australian Motor Manual, August 1965, page 4
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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

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  • Australian Motor Manual, December 1965, page 47
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