1964 Armstrong 500: A Ford Massacre

By Mark Bisset

Date posted: 9 October 2024

Ford Cortina Mk1 two-door GTs filled eight of the Top-10 placings at Mount Panorama on October 4, 1964, in a major rout for the Blue Oval Brigade.

The Harry Firth prepared FoMoCo works cars took-the-podium: the Bob Jane/George Reynolds machine was first from the Barry Seton/Herb Taylor pairing, then Harry partnered with John Raeburn. It was more of the same really, Harry and Bob had won in a Cortina the year before with Bruce McPhee and Graham Ryan third in another GT.

The Big V8s again comprised only the Stubaker Larks, and again, while quick in a straight line their lack of front discs was their achilles-heel. The best placed of these crowd favourite ‘Cop-Cars’ was fourth placed Warren Weldon/Bert Needham.

Holdens were thin on the ground and finished ‘nowhere’. The General worked on the S22 for 1964, an extension of the ’63 EH S4 179 theme.

It had a 9:1 compression ratio, a worked 149 head fitted with wildish cam, twin Solexes, and front discs. Said to have 135bhp and a top speed of 120mph – a rooster amongst the chookins’ it would have been for sure – then GMH announced just before the Bathurst entry closing date that no such special cars existed in production form…

A record 59 cars entered the race. Thirteen marques, 19 different models, there was no one chassis, two engine, parity-at-all-costs bullshit back then: Citroen, Ford, Hillman, Holden, Humber, Morris, NSU, Renault, Simca, Studebaker, Triumph, Vauxhall and Volkswagen.

The drivers faced the most vile, cold, miserable weather for a Bathurst enduro ever.

The roll-call was classy indeed and included many of the main-men behind the wheel or in the workshop for the next 15 years or so including Lionel Ayers, Paul Bolton, Midge Bosworth, Bill Brown, Bill Buckle, Doug Chivas, Digby Cooke, Lex Davison, Barry Ferguson, Harry Firth, Brian Foley, John French, Dennis Geary, Leo and Pete Geoghegan, Ray Gulson, Bernie Haehnle, Ron Hodgson, Bob Holden, Don Holland, Bob Jane, Spencer Martin, Bruce McPhee, Barry Mulholland, Brian Muir, John Raeburn, Brian Reed, John Roxburgh, Ralph Sach, Barry Seton, Tony Simmons, Bob Skelton, Laurie Stewart, Max Stewart, Herb Taylor, Rocky Tresise, Bryan Thompson, Phil West, Peter Williamson, David Walker, Warren Weldon and many more.

It rained cats and dogs from late Friday and continued until early on Sunday morning leaving the paddock, camping grounds and access roads an absolute quagmire.

Practice was indicative rather than a definitive of race potential. Legendary ARDC Chief, John Hinxman allocated grid-positions by lucky-dip, a ballot, so there was plenty of ultimate performance foxing going on during Friday and Saturday. The omnipresent rain added to the intrigue.

The race started on Sunday at 9.15am with the field bunching up enormously into Hell, Bob Jane copped two taps before starting his journey up Mountain Straight. The two Studebakers were soon in the lead, doing 115 mph down Conrod. The lead group started to lap back-markers on lap 7

After 30 laps, the Larks and Cortinas pitted, after the first round of stops Leo Geoghegan led from Seton, Hodgson, Jane and Firth, five Corties in a row! The Studebakers would need five stops for fuel and brakes.

Leo and Pete pressed on hard, leading George Reynolds by 14 seconds, then Harry Firth came in for fuel, a broken generator strap added to his stop. While the Cortinas were suffering from high pad wear, their front-disc performance advantage was clear.

By mid-race the Geoghegans (Class C GT) had the fastest race lap at 3:21.3 albeit the Seton/Taylor Cortina GT was quickest down-the-chute: 113 mph against 106 mph.

Everything was stabile by lap 80: A Studebaker in front of Class D, Coopers in B and Vivas in Class A, then the shape of the race changed.

Bob Jane passed Pete Geoghegan, the immaculate blue Cortina had broken a generator bracket which took 15 minutes to fix.

With 50 laps to run the ‘outright’ result was set in favour of the Jane/Reynolds works Cortina GT. The Spencer Martin/Bill Brown Vauxhall Viva won Class A from five other pursuing Vivas, while the Bruce Maher/Charlie Smith Morris Cooper triumphed in Class B from three siblings.

The rumbling Studebaker Larks of Warren Weldon/Bert Needham and Fred Sutherland/Allan Mottram led home ten other Class D machines.

Image: Autopics

1964 ARMSTRONG 500 RESULTS

1	Bob Jane / George Reynolds	Cortina GT	C	130
2	Barry Seton / Herb Taylor	Cortina GT	C	130
3	Harry Firth / John Reaburn	Cortina GT	C	129
4	Bert Needham / Warren Weldon	Studebaker	D	128
5	Ron Hodgson / John French	Cortina GT	C	127
6	Leo Geoghegan / Ian Geoghegan	Cortina GT	C	127
7	Bruce McPhee / Barry Mulholland	Cortina GT	C	126
8	Fred Sutherland / Alan Mottram	Studebaker	D	126
9	Charlie Smith / Bruce Maher	Morris Cooper	B	124
10	Bill Buckle / Brian Foley	Citroen	D	124

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1964 Armstrong 500: A Ford Massacre

Holdens were thin on the ground and finished ‘nowhere’. The General worked on the S22 for 1964, an extension of the ’63 EH S4 179 theme.

It rained cats and dogs from late Friday and continued until early on Sunday morning leaving the paddock, camping grounds and access roads an absolute quagmire.

After 30 laps, the Larks and Cortinas pitted, after the first round of stops Leo Geoghegan led from Seton, Hodgson, Jane and Firth, five Corties in a row! The Studebakers would need five stops for fuel and brakes.

Everything was stabile by lap 80: A Studebaker in front of Class D, Coopers in B and Vivas in Class A, then the shape of the race changed.

1964 ARMSTRONG 500 RESULTS

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