# 1965 Armstrong 500

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. 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Bluebird, Fiat 850, 1.5 litre Ford Cortina 220, Morris Mini de Luxe and Vauxhall Viva, although all the Datsuns were withdrawn prior to race start due to wheel cracking failures.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 Distributors | 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 – 7:16:45.1