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.Australian Motor Manual, August 1965, page 4 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.

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

Class A 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Bluebird, Fiat 850, 1.5 litre Ford Cortina 220, Morris Mini de Luxe and Vauxhall Viva, although all the Datsuns were withdrawn prior to race start due to wheel cracking failures.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 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 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 DistributorsOfficial Entry List, Racing Cars News, October 1965, page 27 Spencer Martin Bill Brown Datsun Bluebird DNS A 48 Nissan Motor Distributors Tony Simmons Mike Champion Datsun Bluebird DNS A 51 Nissan Motor Distributors Bruce Demuth Bill Orr Datsun Bluebird

Statistics Fastest Lap – #29 Brian Foley – 3:13.7 (lap record) Average Speed – 110 km/h Race time of first car home – 7:16:45.1Why Cortinas Win, Modern Motor, December 1965, pages 38 to 41 + 66 to 67

References

Further reading Australian Motor Manual, December 1965, page 47

External links 1965 Armstrong 500 race summary, race results and video, www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au Bathurst 1965 images, autopics.com.au