1969 Hardie-Ferodo 500

The 1969 Hardie-Ferodo 500 was the tenth running of the Bathurst 500 production car race. It was held on 5 October 1969 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst. Cars competed in five classes based on purchase price (Australian dollars) of the vehicle.

The race was won by the newly formed Holden Dealer Team with Colin Bond and Tony Roberts with team mates Peter Brock and Des West finishing third in their Holden Monaro GTS350's, with the team's third car finishing sixth. In between them in second position was Bruce McPhee and his single-lap co-driver Barry Mulholland driving a Phase 1 Ford Falcon GTHO.

Peter Brock and Canadian Allan Moffat made their Bathurst débuts in the race. Brock with Harry Firth's Holden Dealer Team, and Moffat driving a works Falcon GTHO with Alan Hamilton. Between them, Brock and Moffat would go on to win 13 of the next 17 Bathurst 500/100's, with Brock winning a record nine times (all for Holden), and Moffat winning four times for Ford.

The Ford Works Team were the favourites to win the race with their new GTHO Falcons which proved to have a speed advantage over the 350 Monaro's. However, the decision by Ford and their American team manager Al Turner to import special racing tyres for the works Falcons proved to be a disaster. During the race numerous tyre failures put the Works cars out of contention. After early tyre failures on the Pete and Leo Geoghegan car, as well as the Fred Gibson and Barry Seton car, Turner called Moffat into the pits for a tyre change. There it was found that Moffat had been far easier on his tyres than either Pete Geoghegan or Seton and that the stop was not necessary. As of 2014 Moffat believes that this decision cost himself and co-driver Alan Hamilton the race win. The day after the race, Ford ran a full page newspaper advert stating "We were a little deflated" referring to the tyre failures.

1969 also became famous due to the first lap crash which saw at least one third of the field forced to retire or carry on with accident damage. John French, who qualified 21st, rolled his Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV at Skyline in front of the field, as did Bill Brown who rolled his Falcon trying to avoid the Alfa which hadn't yet rolled.^[1] For Brown, it would be the first of three rollover's at Bathurst on the same piece of road (McPhillamy Park - Skyline) in three years with the third rollover also defying the laws of physics in his lucky escape from death in 1971.

Class structure

The winning Holden Monaro (pictured at Lakeside in July 1970)

Class A

The smallest class was for under cars the cost less $1,860. It was made up of Datsun 1000, Hillman Imp, Morris Mini K and Toyota Corolla.

Class B

The $1,861 to $2,250 class was dominated by the Datsun 1600, but also contained Ford Cortina, Hillman Gazelle, Morris 1500, Renault 10 and Volkswagen Type 3.

Class C

The $2,251 to $3,100 class saw a mix of Chrysler Valiant, Fiat 125, Ford Capri, Mazda R100, Morris Cooper S and Renault 16.

Class D

The $3,101 to $4,500 class featured the outright contenders, Ford Falcon GTHO and Holden Monaro, but also contained a single Toyota Corona.

Class E

For cars over $4,500, had a single automatic gearbox version of the Ford Falcon GT but otherwise was all Alfa Romeo with 1750 GTV and a single 1750 Berlina.

Top 10 Qualifiers

Pos	No	Team	Driver	Car	Qual
Pole	59	Ford Australia	Ian Geoghegan	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	2:48.9
2	51		Digby Cooke	Holden HT Monaro GTS350	2:50.0
3	46	Bardahl	Bruce McPhee	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	2:50.1
4	61	Ford Australia	Allan Moffat	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	2:53.6
5	60	Ford Australia	Fred Gibson	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	2:53.7
6	56	Scuderia Veloce Alto Ford	David McKay	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	2:53.7
7	44	Holden Dealer Team	Colin Bond	Holden HT Monaro GTS350	2:53.8
8	44	Holden Dealer Team	Peter Macrow	Holden HT Monaro GTS350	2:54.5
9	50	McLeod Ford	John Goss	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	2:55.3
10	44	Holden Dealer Team	Des West	Holden HT Monaro GTS350	2:55.4

Results

Pos	Class	No	Team	Drivers	Car	Laps	Qual Pos
1	D	44	Holden Dealer Team	Colin Bond Tony Roberts	Holden HT Monaro GTS350	130	7
2	D	46	Bardahl	Bruce McPhee Barry Mulholland	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	130	2
3	D	43	Holden Dealer Team	Peter Brock Des West	Holden HT Monaro GTS350	130	10
4	D	61	Ford Australia	Allan Moffat Alan Hamilton	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	129	4
5	D	59	Ford Australia	Ian Geoghegan Leo Geoghegan	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	128	1
6	D	42	Holden Dealer Team	Peter Macrow Henk Woelders	Holden HT Monaro GTS350	128	8
7	D	54		Bob Beasely Bob Muir	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	127	18
8	E	71	Alec Mildren Alfa Romeo	Kevin Bartlett Len Goodwin	Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV	126	22
9	E	68		Charlie Smith Bill Ford	Ford XW Falcon GT Automatic	126	20
10	D	58	Byrt Ford	Martin Chenery Ernie Johnson	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	125	19
11	E	69		Peter Brown Ray Gulson	Alfa Romeo 1750 Berlina	122	27
12	D	63		Joe Butta Bob Genders	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	122	24
13	D	48		Mike Savva Bob Wilkinson	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	121	11
14	C	30		Ron Gillard Warren Gracie	Morris Cooper S	119	36
15	C	38		Peter Finlay Bob Forbes	Fiat 125	119	34
16	C	31		Ron Kearns Gerry Lister	Fiat 125	119	37
17	C	22		Graham Ryan Mike Kable	Chrysler Valiant Pacer	118	30
18	B	18	W.H. Motors	Bruce Stewart George Garth	Datsun 1600	117	41
19	C	25		Gary Cooke Geoff Spence	Mazda R100	117	35
20	C	32		Ian Hindmarsh Bill Stanley	Morris Cooper S	117	33
21	C	23		Trevor Mason Neil Mason	Mazda R100	117	32
22	C	26		Les Grose Graham Moore	Morris Cooper S	117	45
23	B	15	Datsun Racing Team	John Roxburgh Doug Whiteford	Datsun 1600	117	44
24	B	17	W.H. Motors	Don Smith Peter Wilson	Datsun 1600	114	43
25	B	19		Dave Morrow Bob Wootton	Datsun 1600	114	51
26	D	57		Roy Griffiths Glyn Scott	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	114	17
27	B	14	Datsun Racing Team	William Coad Jon Leighton	Datsun 1600	113	46
28	C	28		David Frazer Allan Johns	Morris Cooper S	113	42
29	A	2	AMI Toyota	Brian Sampson Bob Morris	Toyota Corolla	112	52
30	A	6	Datsun Racing Team	Bill Evans Barry Tapsall	Datsun 1000	110	55
31	B	20		Max Dickson Diane Dickson	Ford Cortina Mk.II 240	108	57
32	B	10		Gary Campbell Gerry Murphy	Volkswagen 1600	107	58
33	C	27	President Car Sales	Bill Bryden John T. Smith	Renault 16TS	107	53
34	A	7	Kent BMC	David Bye Richard Willis	Morris Mini K	104	61
35	B	9		Bob Edgerton Ross Edgerton	Renault 10	100	62
36	A	8		Arthur Olsen Sandra Bennett	Morris Mini K	99	63
37	B	12		Alf Barrett Mel Mollison	Morris 1500	97	56
38	D	52		Harry Gapps Frank Hann	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	94	23
39	A	4		Martin Cortese Steve Parkes	Toyota Corolla	93	60
40	C	35		Trevor Meehan Mal Brewster	Morris Cooper S	93	39
41	B	16		Nick Ledingham Damon Beck	Hillman Gazelle	84	49
42	C	36		Paul Mander Phil Edwards	Morris Cooper S	82	29
DNF	D	51		Digby Cooke David Bowden	Holden HT Monaro GTS350	96	2
DNF	D	60	Ford Australia	Fred Gibson Barry Seton	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	93	5
DNF	C	24		Keith Grose John Wright	Ford Capri Mk.I 1600GT	92	38
DNF	A	1		George Geshopulos Ray Scanlan	Hillman Imp GT	88	59
DNF	C	37		Ann Thomson Carole Corness	Morris Cooper S	82	47
DNF	D	56	Scuderia Veloce Alto Ford	David McKay Brian Foley	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	78	6
DNF	D	45	AMI Toyota	Max Stewart Brian Reed	Toyota Corona 1900SL	78	28
DNF	B	21		Hans Tholstrup Brian Connell	Datsun 1600	73	64
DNF	D	50	McLeod Ford	John Goss Dennis Cribbin	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	50	9
DNF	C	33		Christine Gibson Lynne Keefe	Fiat 125	48	40
DNF	D	62		Nick Petrilli Max Stahl	Holden HT Monaro GTS350	45	15
DNF	D	64	Boyded of Bankstown	Bill Tuckey Sib Petralia	Holden HT Monaro GTS350	44	13
DNF	D	53		Barry Arentz Brian Michelmore	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	36	12
DNF	C	39		Bernie Haehnle Peter Wherrett	Mazda R100	31	31
DNF	B	11		Bruce Darke Dennis Cooke	Datsun 1600	4	50
DNF	C	29		Bob Cook Alan Cant	Ford Capri Mk.I 1600GT	1	48
DNF	D	55	Scuderia Veloce Alto Ford	Bill Brown Phil West	Ford XW Falcon GTHO	0	16
DNF	E	72	Alec Mildren Alfa Romeo	John French Doug Chivas	Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV	0	21
DNF	E	67		Bryan Thompson Graham Ritter	Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV	0	25
DNF	C	34		John Prisk Alan Cameron	Morris Cooper S	0	27
DSQ	A	3	AMI Toyota	Barry Ferguson Jim Laing-Peach	Toyota Corolla	103	54
DNS	D			David Sheldon Don Holland	Holden HT Monaro GTS350		15
DNS	A	5	Datsun Racing Team	Bob Holden Don Toffolon	Datsun 1000

Statistics

• Pole Position - #59 Ian Geoghegan - 2:48.9
• Fastest Lap - #61 Moffat/Hamilton & #60 Gibson/Seton - 2:52.1 (lap record)
• Average Speed - 123 km/h
• Race Time - 6:32:25

References

External links

• CAMS Manual reference to Australian titles
• race results