1960 Armstrong 500

The 1960 Armstrong 500 was an endurance race for Australian made or assembled standard production sedans. The event was held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Victoria on 20 November 1960 over a distance of 167 laps x 3.0 miles = 501 miles. Officially only class placings were awarded although John Roxburgh and Frank Coad have been widely acclaimed as the outright winners of the event, and have been recognised in CAMS motorsport manual in more recent times. This has been the source of some controversy as claims the winners of class C, Geoff Russell, David Anderson and Tony Loxton covered the race distance in a faster time. The source of the discrepancy arises from the starting procedure which saw the classes released at thirty second intervals, with the Roxburgh/Coad Vauxhall starting the race thirty seconds before the Russell/Anderson/Loxton Peugeot. With surviving records not sufficiently accurate to say whether the Peugeot was closer than thirty seconds behind the Vauxhall, the issue has petered out over time.

[edit] Results

Class results were as follows:

• A History of Australian Motor Sport, © 1980
• Australian Motor Sport, Dec 1960 - Jan 1961
• Australia's Greatest Motor Race, © 1981
• Australia's Greatest Motor Race, 1960 -1989
• The Age, Monday, 21 Nov 1960
• The Book Of Australian Motor Racing, © 1964
• www.autopics.com
• www.nmrm.com.au