Bathurst flashback – 1965: Cortina country
By Andrew Clarke
Date posted: 8 October 2025
When Barry Seton and Midge Bosworth crossed the finish line to win the 1965 Armstrong 500, it made it four 500 mile enduros in a row for Ford and with that Holden started to take notice.
If you want a clean origin story for Bathurst as an endurance event, 1965 is your smoking gun. The Armstrong 500 finally allowed imported cars that met Australia’s registration quotas, kept the price-based classes and let everyday metal grind through 130 laps, and for the first time recognised an outright winner.
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A ruthless. Ford arrived with momentum, three straight 500 mile wins, and doubled down. The Cortina GT500 was the right hammer: light, tough, frugal, happy to sit in the 3m20s all day. Barry Seton and Midge Bosworth didn’t so much win as demonstrate: one fuel stop, bonnet never lifted, tyres untouched, and 7:16:45 to cover the lot, about twenty-five minutes quicker than the old mark. Seton then drove the same Cortina home, as you do.
The paddock gossiped about gearing, fuel burn and a possible 3-litre future that, thankfully, fizzled. What didn’t fizzle: Ford’s narrative, four straight 500-mile production wins. The badge meant something on Monday.
What actually won ’65, beyond ‘Ford built a better mousetrap’? Mechanical sympathy and grown-up restraint. The GT500 didn’t need theatre; it needed distance. Seton/Bosworth delivered copy-paste laps and a metronomic pitlane. The Cooper S brigade supplied the spice, nimble, economical, quick enough to keep the outright fight honest. But over five hundred miles, physics pays the bills: light, strong, simple beats heavy, complicated, hopeful.
1965 Armstrong 500 – 131 laps 500 miles
| PLACE |
DRIVER / CO DRIVER(S) |
VEHICLE |
CLASS |
LAPS |
| 1 |
Barry Seton / Midge Bosworth |
Ford Cortina GT500 |
D |
130 |
| 2 |
Bruce McPhee / Barry Mulholland |
Ford Cortina GT500 |
D |
130 |
| 3 |
Brian Foley / Peter Manton |
Morris Cooper S |
C |
129 |
| 4 |
Lindsay Little / Stan Pomroy |
Morris Cooper S |
C |
129 |
| 5 |
Bill McLachlan / Jack Murray |
Ford Cortina GT500 |
D |
128 |
| 6 |
Paddy Hopkirk / Timo Makinen |
Morris Cooper S |
C |
128 |
| 7 |
Bill Stanley / Ralph Sach |
Morris Cooper S |
C |
128 |
| 8 |
Ray Kaleda / Graham Moore |
Morris Cooper S |
C |
125 |
| 9 |
Bob Holden / Greg Cusack |
Morris Cooper S |
C |
125 |
| 10 |
Max Stewart / Bob Young |
Triumph 2000 |
D |
124 |
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