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1963 Armstrong 500

Motor race in Australia

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

A replica of the Ford Cortina GT in which Bob Jane and Harry Firth won Class C

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
54	Lanock Motors Ltd	Australia Barry Ferguson
Australia Bill Ford	Volkswagen 1200	116
55	Vaughan & Lane Pty Ltd	Australia Don Holland
Australia Lindsay Little	Morris 850	116
51	Victorian VW Agents-VW Sales	Australia Jim McKeown
Australia George Reynolds	Volkswagen 1200	115
61	A. Andrews	Australia Rocky Tresise
Australia Arthur Andrews	Volkswagen 1200	115
57	Macquarie Motors	Australia Greg Mackie
Australia Graham White	Volkswagen 1200	113
53	K.B. Nicholson Motors	Australia Bill Stanley
Australia John Alexander	Morris 850	113
49	H.E. Taylor	Australia Barry Seton
Australia Herb Taylor	Morris 850	112
50	Kinsley Motors	Australia George Forrest
Australia Frank Hann	Volkswagen 1200	111
59	T. Corcoran	Australia Tom Corcoran
Australia Digby Cooke	Morris 850	111
52	Paul M. Samuels	Australia Barry Collerson
Australia Les Howard	Fiat 770	103
56	Reg Smith Motors	Australia Jim Bonthorne
Australia Mike Callan	Triumph Herald	101
58	Vaughan & Lane Pty Ltd	Australia Fred Gibson
Australia Ken Nicholson	Morris 850	89
60	P & R Williams	Australia Tony Hill
Australia Frank Kleinig	Morris 850
42	Denis Summers Conversions	Australia Doug Chivas
Australia Ken Wilkinson	Morris Cooper	125
41	Delore Motors (Newcastle)	Australia Jack Gates
Australia Mike Nedelko	Morris Cooper	125
28	Ford Motor Co. of Australia	Australia Ern Abbott
Australia Alan Caelli	Ford Cortina 1500	123
46	Ford Motor Co. of Australia	Australia Max Volkers
Australia K Burns	Ford Cortina 1500	123
43	Bamar Motors	Australia Wal Donnelly
Australia John Marchiori	Morris Cooper	122
44	P & R Williams	Australia Des West
Australia John Martin	Morris Cooper	120
26	C. Harding	Australia Chris Harding
Australia Adrian Yannuccelli	Morris Cooper	120
29	Total Team	Australia Frank Matich
Australia George Murray	Renault R8	119
37	Rex Emmett	Australia John Connolly
Australia Rod Draper	Renault R8	119
39	P & R Williams	Australia Brian Foley
Australia Peter Manton	Morris Cooper	116
45	P. Brown	Australia Peter Brown
Australia Ron Marshall	Morris Cooper	115
47	C.G. Smith	Australia Ron Hodgson
Australia Charlie Smith	Morris Cooper	115
32	Cecil R Pierce	Australia Ken Brigden
Australia Bruce Smith	Simca Aronde	114
38	Gurdon Motors	Australia Barry Gurdon
Australia Jerry Trevor-Jones	Morris Major Elite	113
33	Gurdon Motors	Australia Jack Murray
Australia Alan Edney	Morris Major Elite	113
48	Gurdon Motors	Australia Warren Blomfield
Australia Lorraine Hill	Morris Major Elite	112
36	Ron Thorp's Bargain Barn	Australia Ron Thorp
Australia John White	Morris Major Elite	111
40	Rex Emmett	Australia Les Park
Australia Fred Sutherland	Renault Gordini	110
25	Scuderia Veloce	Australia Ron Clarke
Australia David Walker	Renault R8	102
30	Delore Motors (Newcastle)	Australia Doug Kelley
Australia Graham Kelley	Morris Cooper
34	Total Bexley Service Station	Australia Mike Martin
Australia Dave Humphries	Morris Cooper
35	Howard and Sons Racing Team	Australia Sid Howard
Australia Les Weiley	Morris Cooper	18
27	P. & R. Williams	Australia Paul Bolton
Australia Laurie Stewart	Morris Cooper	13
31	Three Way Motors	Australia Carl Kennedy
Australia Doug Stewart	Simca Aronde
20	Ford Motor Co. of Australia	Australia Bob Jane
Australia Harry Firth	Ford Cortina Mk.I GT	130
15	F.G. Morgan	Australia Ralph Sach
Australia Fred Morgan	Holden EH S4	129
13	Grawill Motors Pty. Ltd.	Australia Bruce McPhee
Australia Graham Ryan	Ford Cortina Mk.I GT	129
22	Barrie Broomhall Motors	Australia Barry Broomhall
Australia Bill Cunliffe	Ford Cortina Mk.I GT	124
18	H. Budd	Australia Harry Budd
Australia R. Smith	Holden EH S4	123
23	Geissler Motors Pty. Ltd.	Australia Ian Grant
Australia Trevor Marden	Holden EH S4	120
16	Muirs Motors (Ryde)	Australia Kevin Bartlett
Australia Bill Reynolds	Holden EH S4	115
24	B.P. Warwick Farm Service Station	Australia Lex Bailey
Australia Phil McCumisky	Holden FB Special	115
17	Heldon Motors Pty. Ltd.	Australia Spencer Martin
Australia Brian Muir	Holden EH S4	111
21	Ford Motor Co. of Australia	Australia Ian Geoghegan
Australia Leo Geoghegan	Ford Cortina Mk.I GT	105
14	Seatons Globe Hotel, Albury	Australia Jim O'Shaunnessy
Australia John Brindley	Holden EH S4	65
8	Ron Dunbier Motors	Australia Tony Allen
Australia Tony Reynolds	Chrysler AP5 Valiant	126
5	Ford Motor Co. of Australia	Australia Geoff Russell
Australia John Reaburn	Ford Zephyr Mk.III	126
9	Killara Motor Garage	Australia Bob Holden
Australia Bill March	Peugeot 404	119
2	Needham Motors Pty Ltd	Australia Warren Weldon
Australia Bert Needham	Studebaker Lark	115
6	Alex Strachan Motors	Australia Bill Burns
Australia Brian Lawler	Humber Super Snipe	21
4	Baulkham Hill Service Station	Australia Bob Cook
Australia Alwyn Rose	Chrysler SV1 Valiant	119
7	N.J. Wright	Australia Jim Wright
Australia Ian Ferguson	Studebaker Lark	57
3	Boyded Pty Ltd-Scuderia Veloce	Australia David McKay
Australia Greg Cusack	Vauxhall Velox	20
10	Continental & General Distributors	Australia Bill Coe
Australia Syd Fisher	Peugeot 404	119
12	P. Fallu	Australia Paul Fallu
Australia Terry Kratzmann	Vauxhall VX 4/90

Statistics

Fastest Lap – N/A
Race time of Firth / Jane Ford Cortina GT (First car across the line) – 7:47:14

References

Barry Collerson, Behind the wheel, Australian Motor Sports, November 1963, pages 30, 31, 32 & 50
[https://web.archive.org/web/20210627233932/http://www.pccv.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/HoldenVholdenBathurst.pdf Philip McCumisky, Holden versus Holden at Bathurst, www.pccv.org, as archived at web.archive.org]
Bill Tuckey and David Greenhalgh, Australia's Greatest Motor Race – The First 30 Years

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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