1963 Armstrong 500

1963 Armstrong 500
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The 1963 Armstrong 500 was the fourth running of the Armstrong 500 touring car race. It was held on 6 October 1963. After the 1962 race, the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit was too damaged to continue to stage the race, forcing it to move to a new location, the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst with a new organising club, the Australian Racing Drivers Club. The race was open to standard production sedans with four classes based on the purchase price (in Australian pounds) of the vehicle.

Bob Jane and Harry Firth were the first team to complete the full race distance, taking victory in Class C in their factory backed Ford Cortina GT, the change of both vehicle and circuit making no difference to their result of the previous year. While outright victories were not to be recognised until years later, they had completed a hat-trick of 'first to the line' wins.

Contents 1 Class structure 1.1 Class A 1.2 Class B 1.3 Class C 1.4 Class D 2 Race 3 Results 4 References 5 External links

Class structure

The largest change was cosmetic. The bigger cars moved down the alphabet, the smaller cars moved into classes A and B. The Volkswagens moved into class A. Ford Falcons disappeared from the race, replaced by an influx of smaller, more versatile Ford Cortinas. Like in 1962 the Fords were the biggest threat, shaping up to be faster than the Chrysler Valiants and Studebaker Larks of the larger D Class cars.

Class A

The largest class was for cars that cost less £900. It was made up of Fiat 770, Morris 850, Triumph Herald and Volkswagen Beetle.

Class B

The £901 to £1,000 class featured 1.5 litre Ford Cortina, Morris Cooper and Elite, Renault R8 and Simca Aronde.

Class C

The £1,001 to £1,200 class was Ford Cortina GT, Holden EH 179 and Holden FB.

Class D

The £1,201 to £2,000 class featured Chrysler Valiant, Ford Zephyr, Humber Super Snipe, Peugeot 404, Studebaker Lark, Vauxhall Velox and VX 4/90.

Race

The race became the first Ford vs Holden head-to-head fight, with the works Cortina of defending race champions Bob Jane and Harry Firth winning by a lap over the first EH Holden of Ralph Sach and Frank Morgan with a second Cortina on the same lap. It was a third consecutive victory for Jane and Firth, each victory coming in a different model and back-to-back for the factory Ford team. Second place was the closest Holden would get to a win until the breakthrough in 1968. Chrysler got its first class win with the Valiant of Tony Reynolds and Tony Allen with Geoff Russell driving the factory prepared Ford Zephyr again narrowly missing out on the Class D win. The new Morris Coopers saw the Mini break out of the entry level class and gave Doug Chivas his first class win, co-driving with Ken Wilkinson in Class B, defeating the 1.5 litre Cortinas, ominously just a lap behind the Valiant and the Zephyr. In the small class, Volkswagen again defeated the Morris 850s with Barry Ferguson and Bill Ford claiming the silverware ahead of the Mini of Don Holland and Lindsay Little.

Results

Pos	No	Team	Drivers	Car	Laps
Class A
1	54		Barry Ferguson Bill Ford	Volkswagen 1200	116
2	55		Don Holland Lindsay Little	Morris 850	116
3	51		Jim McKeown George Reynolds	Volkswagen 1200	115
4	61		Rocky Tresise A Andrews	Volkswagen 1200	115
5	57		Greg Mackie Graham White	Volkswagen 1200	113
6	53		Bill Stanley John Alexander	Morris 850	113
7	49		Barry Seton Herb Taylor	Morris 850	112
8	50		Graham Forrest Frank Hann	Volkswagen 1200	111
9	59		Tom Corcoran Digby Cooke	Morris 850	111
10	52		Barry Collerson Les Howard	Fiat 770	103
11	56		Jim Bonthorne Mike Callan	Triumph Herald	101
12	58		Fred Gibson Ken Nicholson	Morris 850	89
DNF	60		Tony Hill Frank Kleinig	Morris 850
Class B
1	42		Doug Chivas Ken Wilkinson	Morris Cooper	125
2	41		Jack Gates Mike Nedelko	Morris Cooper	125
3	28		Ern Abbott Alan Caelli	Ford Cortina 1500	123
4	46		Max Volkers K Burns	Ford Cortina 1500	123
5	43		Wal Donnelly John Marchiori	Morris Cooper	122
6	44		Des West John Martin	Morris Cooper	120
7	26		Om Harding Adrian Yannuccelli	Morris Cooper	120
8	29		Frank Matich George Murray	Renault R8	119
9	37		John Connolly Rod Draper	Renault R8	119
10	39		Brian Foley Peter Manton	Morris Cooper	116
11	45		Peter Brown Ron Marshall	Morris Cooper	115
12	47		Ron Hodgson Charlie Smith	Morris Cooper	115
13	32		Ken Brigden Bruce Smith	Simca Aronde	114
14	38		Barry Gurdon Jerry Trevor-Jones	Morris Elite	113
15	33		Jack Murray Alan Edney	Morris Elite	113
16	48		Warren Blomfield Lorraine Hill	Morris Elite	112
17	36		Ron Thorp Jim White	Morris Elite	111
18	40		Les Park Fred Sutherland	Renault Gordini	110
19	25	Scuderia Veloce	Ron Clarke David Walker	Renault R8	102
DNF			Doug Kelley Graham Kelley	Morris Cooper
DNF			Mike Martin Dave Humphries	Morris Cooper
DNF			Sid Howard Les Welley	Morris Cooper	18
DNF			Paul Bolton Laurie Stewart	Morris Cooper	13
DNF	31		Carl Kennedy Doug Stewart	Simca Aronde
Class C
1	20	Ford Australia	Bob Jane Harry Firth	Ford Cortina Mk.I GT	130
2	12		Ralph Sach Frank Morgan	Holden EH 179	129
3	13		Bruce McPhee Graham Ryan	Ford Cortina Mk.I GT	129
4	22		Barry Broomhall Bill Cunliffe	Ford Cortina Mk.I GT	124
5	18		Harry Budd R Smith	Holden EH 179	123
6	23		Ian Grant Trevor Marden	Holden EH 179	120
7	16		Kevin Bartlett Bill Reynolds	Holden EH 179	115
8	24		Lex Bailey Phil McCumisky	Holden FB	115
9	17	Scuderia Veloce	Spencer Martin Brian Muir	Holden EH 179	111
DNF	21	Ford Australia	Ian Geoghegan Leo Geoghegan	Ford Cortina Mk.I GT	105
DNF	14		Jim O'Shaunnessy John Brindley	Holden EH 179	65
Class D
1	8		Tony Allen Tony Reynolds	Chrysler AP5 Valiant	126
2	5	Ford Australia	Geoff Russell John Reaburn	Ford Zephyr Mk.III	126
3	9		Bob Holden Bill March	Peugeot 404	119
4	2		Warren Weldon Bert Needham	Studebaker Lark	115
45	6		Bill Burns Brian Lawler	Humber Super Snipe	21
DNF	4		Bob Cook Alwyn Rose	Chrysler S Series Valiant	119
DNF			Jim Wright Ian Ferguson	Studebaker Lark	57
DNF	3	Scuderia Veloce	David McKay Greg Cusack	Vauxhall Velox	20
DSQ			Bill Coe Syd Fisher	Peugeot 404	119
DNS			Paul Fallu Terry Kratzmann	Vauxhall VX 4/90

References

• Greenhalgh, David; Thomas B. Floyd, Bill Tuckey (2000). "1963 The telecast begins". Australia's Greatest Motor Race 1960-1999 The first 40 years. Hornsby: Chevron Publishing Group Pty Limited. pp. 114–121 & 452. ISBN 1-875221-12-3. 

External links

• CAMS Manual reference to Australian titles
• www.touringcarracing.net
• race results
• Autopics Bathurst images

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