1965 Armstrong 500

1965 Armstrong 500
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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]

Those first officially recognised outright 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.

1 Class structure
2 Results
3 Statistics
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links

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1300, Fiat 850, 1.5 litre Ford Cortina 220, Morris Mini de Luxe and Vauxhall Viva, although all the Datsun's were withdrawn prior to race start due to wheel cracking failures.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	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. Pty Ltd	Jack Murray Bill McLachlan	Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500	128
6	C	3	30	BMC	Paddy Hopkirk Timo Makinen	Morris Cooper S	128
7	C	4	18	Marque Motors	Bill Stanley Ralph Sach	Morris Cooper S	128
8	C	5	19	College Auto Port	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 Co	Barry Arentz Geoff Russell	Ford Cortina Mk.I GT	124
12	D	5	3	British & Continental Cars	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 Co	Harry Firth John Reaburn	Ford Cortina Mk.I 220	119
15	A	2	54	Ray Morris Motors	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 Co	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		Alton Boddenberg Digby Cooke	Chrysler Valiant	116
22	C	9	31		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	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		Warren Weldon Bill Slattery	Studebaker Lark	112
28	A	6	55	BMC	Kevin Bartlett Ron Haylen	Morris Mini de Luxe	111
29	A	7	47		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		Peter Brown Ray Gulson	Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500	106
35	A	10	44	BMC	Steve Harvey Laurie Stewart	Morris Mini de Luxe	105
36	B	8	37		Peter Cray Don Holland	Morris Cooper	99
37	D	10	13		Bob Salter Ken Wiggins	Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500	94
38	C	10	28		Evan Thomas Lionel Williams	Holden HD X2	84
39	B	9	35		Graham Forrest Frank Hann	Morris Cooper	81
40	D	11	8		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 Co	Bob Jane George Reynolds	Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500	58
DNF	D		15		Ron Hodgson Bob Beasely	Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500	54
DNF	A		46		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	John French John Harvey	Morris Cooper S	24
DNF	D		17		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 Co	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

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.