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This coming weekend is Bathurst. For many Australasian race fans, this is the biggest motorsport event of the year. On a global scale, it isn’t as significant as the Australian Grand Prix, but Bathurst has a following for Australian and New Zealand race fans that is so built on tradition and emotion, its become more than just a race.
Long before it began hosting a touring car endurance race, the Mount Panorama circuit on the outskirts of the sleepy little New South Wales town of Bathurst roared to the sound of just about every competition vehicle imaginable, from single seater racing cars, and sports cars, to motor bikes. By the late 1950s, touring car racing was gaining a strong following, and in 1960, a 500 mile endurance race for standard production touring cars was held on the sweeping Victorian race track of Phillip Island, and sponsored by Armstrong York Engineering, producers of shock absorbers.
The 1960 Armstrong 500 was open to Australian made or assembled vehicles, split into six classes based on engine size. There would be no official recognition of an overall winner, only class winners. By the 1962 running of the event, its popularity had slumped, and after some major issues with the track breaking up from the strain of 40 cars pounding around it for over eight hours, the Armstrong 500 was moved to the Bathurst circuit for 1963.
The Bathurst circuit is one of the most extreme in the world. Throughout most of the year it’s a public road. Its length in 1963 was 6.13km. Since 1987, its been 6.21km. The vertical difference between its lowest and highest points is 174 meters. It features a car destroying climb from the start/finish section, where its at its lowest point, to the top, then a high speed straight back down again over several rises to further torture components, with a sharp left bend at the bottom to sweep around onto the start/finish straight once more, which quickly wears out standard brakes.
With the new venue in 1963 came new organisation, as the Australian Racing Drivers Club (ARDC) took over the running. Part of the appeal of the Mount Panorama circuit was that it truly tested the endurance capabilities of a motor vehicle, as well as its performance abilities. With growing media interest in the event, the race provided a chance for manufacturers to truly showcase their products. As had been the case with the final Armstrong 500 at Phillip Island in 1962, the class system was now broken into four groups, based on purchase price. And the preference for awarding only class victories continued. 56 cars entered the first Bathurst 500 mile touring car race in 1963.
The Bathurst endurance race became an annual highlight on the Australian motor racing calendar throughout the 1960s, with spectator, competitor, and manufacturer interest soaring. From 1973, the distance was increased slightly, from 500 miles to 1000 kilometers (621 miles). The 1973 event also saw the introduction for the first time of the Group C touring car formula, replacing the Series Production rules that had been in place since 1960. Group C allowed a limited number of purpose built racing components be fitted to the cars, rather than requiring they be strictly as they rolled off the assembly line. From 1985, Group C was replaced by the international FIA Group A regulations. From 1993 Group A was replaced by the Australian-unique 5.0 Litre Touring Car regulations, which would later be renamed V8 Supercars.
Todays modern V8 Supercars are purpose built race cars. They bare no resemblance to the standard production touring cars that began racing at Bathurst in 1963. V8 Supercars are built from the ground up around a space-frame chassis, on top of which a composite body is mounted, with purpose built racing components throughout. Bathurst is no longer an endurance race. Retirements through reliability are much less common. Its essentially a 1000km sprint race. But its history, tradition, emotion, and its significance on the Australasian motorsport scene have made it hugely important.
Although I posted this photo collection on this site a couple of years ago, I thought this a good time to re-post these beautiful Bruce Wells images, taken during the 1964 Armstrong 500, only the second time the annual Bathurst endurance touring car race was held. Bruce’s photos capture the character of the track, and graphically illustrate how much it has changed. Although the Mount Panorama layout is still considered one of the most hair-raising tracks in the world, and very much of the ‘old-school’ ilk, it has changed almost beyond recognition over the last 50 years. Although the course itself remains the same, save the addition of ‘The Chase’, the right-left-right series of bends two thirds of the way down Conrod Straight in 1987, its more the immediate surrounding area that has changed. The track is now slightly wider in many places, smoother, and a few of the peaks that encouraged the cars get airborne have been skimmed, but largely it’s the trees, banks, and other potential hazards that have been moved back away from the circuit. But its still a track that can bite, and is completely unforgiving of mistakes. Even Bathurst veterans treat it with the utmost respect.
The 1964 Armstrong 500 featured 59 entrants, in four classes. Whereas todays V8 Supercar championship has recently expanded from two manufacturers to four, in 1964 there were 15 manufacturers, and 21 different models competing. The 500 (804.67km) mile race took over 7 hours to complete, or about one hour longer than todays 1000km race, despite being shorter in length, and the track not featuring The Chase. But in 1964, the cars were essentially as they rolled off the showroom floor. They sported no competition components at all, and safety measures were limited to a helmet and standard safety belt. This really was an endurance event, to test the capabilities of the actual cars people were buying and driving on Australian roads. Fastest lap was 3:21.3 (current V8 Supercar lap record is 2:08.4), set by the Geoghegan brothers Cortina GT. But this was achieved in what was essentially a road car, on narrow cross-ply tyres, washy suspension, feeble brakes, and with its driver using the steering wheel and his butt-cheeks to hold himself in place on the slippery, unsupportive seat.
But my description doesn’t do justice to the challenges faced by drivers in 1964. These stunning photos do a much better job. Just look at the amount of lean through the corners displayed both by car and driver. Note the severe positive camber as wheels and suspension buckles under the strain. The complete lack of any driver protection. Then look at the potential hazards lining the track on every straight and through every corner; trees, wire fences, banks, ditches, power poles. This was epic stuff, and these drivers weren’t getting paid a million dollars a year to do this. Indeed, most weren’t getting paid at all.
The cars pictured here weren’t designed to do what they’re doing. But that is what makes Bathurst so great. Its about pushing cars and drivers to their limits. This was the case in 1964. Its still the case today.
