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.

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. As in 1962 the Fords were the biggest threat, shaping up to be faster than the larger D Class cars which included Chrysler Valiants and Studebaker Larks.

Class A Class A was for cars that cost less £900. It comprised 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 Morris Major Elite, Renault R8 and Simca Aronde.

Class C The £1,001 to £1,200 class was contested by Ford Cortina GT, Holden EH S4 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 Vauxhall 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 Fred 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 taking first place ahead of the Mini of Don Holland and Lindsay Little.

Results

Pos No Entrant Drivers Car Laps Class A 1 54 Lanock Motors Ltd Barry Ferguson Bill Ford Volkswagen 1200 116 2 55 Vaughan & Lane Pty Ltd Don Holland Lindsay Little Morris 850 116 3 51 Victorian VW Agents-VW Sales Jim McKeown George Reynolds Volkswagen 1200 115 4 61 A. Andrews Rocky Tresise Arthur Andrews Volkswagen 1200 115 5 57 Macquarie Motors Greg Mackie Graham White Volkswagen 1200 113 6 53 K.B. Nicholson Motors Bill Stanley John Alexander Morris 850 113 7 49 H.E. Taylor Barry Seton Herb Taylor Morris 850 112 8 50 Kinsley Motors George Forrest Frank Hann Volkswagen 1200 111 9 59 T. Corcoran Tom Corcoran Digby Cooke Morris 850 111 10 52 Paul M. Samuels Barry Collerson Les Howard Fiat 770 103 11 56 Reg Smith Motors Jim Bonthorne Mike Callan Triumph Herald 101 12 58 Vaughan & Lane Pty Ltd Fred Gibson Ken Nicholson Morris 850 89 DNF 60 P & R Williams Tony Hill Frank Kleinig Morris 850 Class B 1 42 Denis Summers Conversions Doug Chivas Ken Wilkinson Morris Cooper 125 2 41 Delore Motors (Newcastle) Jack Gates Mike Nedelko Morris Cooper 125 3 28 Ford Motor Co. of Australia Ern Abbott Alan Caelli Ford Cortina 1500 123 4 46 Ford Motor Co. of Australia Max Volkers K Burns Ford Cortina 1500 123 5 43 Bamar Motors Wal Donnelly John Marchiori Morris Cooper 122 6 44 P & R Williams Des West John Martin Morris Cooper 120 7 26 C. Harding Chris Harding Adrian Yannuccelli Morris Cooper 120 8 29 Total Team Frank Matich George Murray Renault R8 119 9 37 Rex Emmett John Connolly Rod Draper Renault R8 119 10 39 P & R Williams Brian Foley Peter Manton Morris Cooper 116 11 45 P. Brown Peter Brown Ron Marshall Morris Cooper 115 12 47 C.G. Smith Ron Hodgson Charlie Smith Morris Cooper 115 13 32 Cecil R Pierce Ken Brigden Bruce Smith Simca Aronde 114 14 38 Gurdon Motors Barry Gurdon Jerry Trevor-Jones Morris Major Elite 113 15 33 Gurdon Motors Jack Murray Alan Edney Morris Major Elite 113 16 48 Gurdon Motors Warren Blomfield Lorraine Hill Morris Major Elite 112 17 36 Ron Thorp's Bargain Barn Ron Thorp John White Morris Major Elite 111 18 40 Rex Emmett Les Park Fred Sutherland Renault Gordini 110 19 25 Scuderia Veloce Ron Clarke David Walker Renault R8 102 DNF 30 Delore Motors (Newcastle) Doug Kelley Graham Kelley Morris Cooper DNF 34 Total Bexley Service Station Mike Martin Dave Humphries Morris Cooper DNF 35 Howard and Sons Racing Team Sid Howard Les Weiley Morris Cooper 18 DNF 27 P. & R. Williams Paul Bolton Laurie Stewart Morris Cooper 13 DNF 31 Three Way Motors Carl Kennedy Doug Stewart Simca Aronde Class C 1 20 Ford Motor Co. of Australia Bob Jane Harry Firth Ford Cortina Mk.I GT 130 2 15 F.G. MorganBarry Collerson, Behind the wheel, Australian Motor Sports, November 1963, pages 30, 31, 32 & 50 Ralph Sach Fred Morgan Holden EH S4 129 3 13 Grawill Motors Pty. Ltd. Bruce McPhee Graham Ryan Ford Cortina Mk.I GT 129 4 22 Barrie Broomhall MotorsPhilip McCumisky, Holden versus Holden at Bathurst, www.pccv.org, as archived at web.archive.org Barry Broomhall Bill Cunliffe Ford Cortina Mk.I GT 124 5 18 H. Budd Harry Budd R. Smith Holden EH S4 123 6 23 Geissler Motors Pty. Ltd. Ian Grant Trevor Marden Holden EH S4 120 7 16 Muirs Motors (Ryde) Kevin Bartlett Bill Reynolds Holden EH S4 115 8 24 B.P. Warwick Farm Service Station Lex Bailey Phil McCumisky Holden FB Special 115 9 17 Heldon Motors Pty. Ltd. Spencer Martin Brian Muir Holden EH S4 111 DNF 21 Ford Motor Co. of Australia Ian Geoghegan Leo Geoghegan Ford Cortina Mk.I GT 105 DNF 14 Seatons Globe Hotel, Albury Jim O'Shaunnessy John Brindley Holden EH S4 65 Class D 1 8 Ron Dunbier Motors Tony Allen Tony Reynolds Chrysler AP5 Valiant 126 2 5 Ford Motor Co. of Australia Geoff Russell John Reaburn Ford Zephyr Mk.III 126 3 9 Killara Motor Garage Bob Holden Bill March Peugeot 404 119 4 2 Needham Motors Pty Ltd Warren Weldon Bert Needham Studebaker Lark 115 45 6 Alex Strachan Motors Bill Burns Brian Lawler Humber Super Snipe 21 DNF 4 Baulkham Hill Service Station Bob Cook Alwyn Rose Chrysler SV1 Valiant 119 DNF 7 N.J. Wright Jim Wright Ian Ferguson Studebaker Lark 57 DNF 3 Boyded Pty Ltd-Scuderia Veloce David McKay Greg Cusack Vauxhall Velox 20 DSQ 10 Continental & General Distributors Bill Coe Syd Fisher Peugeot 404 119 DNS 12 P. Fallu Paul Fallu Terry Kratzmann Vauxhall VX 4/90

Statistics Fastest Lap – N/A Race time of Firth / Jane Ford Cortina GT (First car across the line) – 7:47:14Bill Tuckey and David Greenhalgh, Australia's Greatest Motor Race – The First 30 Years

References

External links Race results, www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au Bathurst 1963 images, autopics.com.au 6th Oct 1963. Mount Panorama Circuit, Bathurst NSW. The Armstrong 500 car race (a.k.a Bathurst 500) (video), www.youtube.com