1967 Gallaher 500

1967 Gallaher 500
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A "race replica" of the winning Ford XR Falcon GT

The 1967 Gallaher 500 was the eighth running of the Bathurst 500 production car race. It was held on 1 October 1967 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst. Cars competed in five classes based on purchase price (Australian dollars) of the vehicle.

In a seminal moment for the race, the first Australian built V8 muscle cars appeared in the first Ford Falcon GT. In a race long duel against three dealer entered Alfa Romeo GTVs, the Ford Works Team raced home for a one-two finish with Harry Firth and Fred Gibson acknowledged as race winners after some confusion over lap scoring briefly left question marks over the result. Brothers Leo and Ian Geoghegan finished second with the two Alec Mildren entered Alfa Romeos of Doug Chivas / Max Stewart and Kevin Bartlett / Laurie Stewart all finishing on the same lap. It was Firth's fourth victory, equalling Bob Jane's record.

The confusion over the result stemmed from the Geoghegan's first pit stop. Driving the opening stint, Leo Geoghegan's pole winning Falcon almost ran out of fuel coming past the pits. As he could not reverse into pit lane without being disqualified, Leo went in through the back gate to the pits located on Mountain Straight, and came back into pit lane through the paddock gate. Although he had not completed the lap, as he crossed the finish line in pit lane (located before he got to his pit bay) he was mistakenly credited with completing the lap. Firth, who knew this, was livid with the Australian Racing Drivers Club (ARDC) when the Geoghegan car was flagged in first, despite finishing 11 seconds behind Gibson (although he knew that he'd completed his 130th lap, Gibson completed another lap as he had not yet been shown the chequered flag). Firth, known as "The Fox", immediately protested the result and it was not until later that evening that he and Gibson were installed as race winners. Firth's protest led to long standing animosity between himself and the Geoghegan Team who were team mates for the race, with Leo contending until his death in 2015 that he and his brother won the race.[1]

Midge Whiteman and Jane Richardson made history as the first all girls team to drive in the Bathurst 500, and to this day remain one of two all girl teams to finish the race (Midge Whiteman and Christine Cole finished in 1968).

Class structure

Class A

The smallest class was for under cars the cost less $1,800. It was made up of Datsun 1000 and 1300, Hillman GT, Holden Torana and Toyota Corolla.

Class B

The $1,801 to $2,100 class featured Ford Cortina, Hillman Arrow, and Morris Cooper and 1100S, Renault R8 and Toyota Corona.

Class C

The $2,101 to $3,000 class was dominated by the Morris Cooper S, but also contained Fiat 124 and 850, an automatic gearbox Ford Falcon, Holden HD X2 and Prince Skyline.

Class D

The $3,001 to $4,500 class featured the debut of the 'Australian V8's which would dominate the history of the race, represented by, Ford Falcon GT, but also contained a single, Alfa Romeo Giulia, Audi Super 90, Studebaker Lark, Triumph 2000 and Volvo 122.

Class E

For the first time an unlimited class, for cars over $4,500, was included and while many exotic cars were rumoured the class contained Alfa Romeo 1600 GTV and a single Dodge Phoenix TD2.

Top 10 Qualifiers

The 1967 Gallaher 500 was the first time the grid was decided on qualifying times, regardless of class. Prior to 1967 the cars were gridded according to practice times but in their respective classes with the fastest class starting at the front of the grid and so on.

Pos No Team Driver Car Qual
Pole 53 Ford Australia Australia Ian Geoghegan Ford XR Falcon GT 3:03.0
2 52 Ford Australia Australia Fred Gibson Ford XR Falcon GT 3:03.2
3 61 Alec Mildren Alfa Romeo Australia Kevin Bartlett Alfa Romeo 1600 GTV 3:03.5
4 60 Alec Mildren Alfa Romeo Australia Doug Chivas Alfa Romeo 1600 GTV 3:05.2
5 54 Ford Australia Australia Bob Jane Ford XR Falcon GT 3:05.2
6 62 M.W. Motors Australia Paul Hawkins Alfa Romeo 1600 GTV 3:05.7
7 51 Australia Des West Ford XR Falcon GT 3:06.0
8 49 Australia Mike Savva Ford XR Falcon GT 3:06.8
9 50 Australia Greg Cusack Ford XR Falcon GT NA
10 55 Needham Motors Australia Warren Weldon Studebaker Lark NA

Results

Pos Class Class
Pos
No Team Drivers Car Laps Qual
Pos
1 D 1 52 Ford Australia Australia Harry Firth
Australia Fred Gibson
Ford XR Falcon GT 130 2
2 D 2 53 Ford Australia Australia Ian Geoghegan
Australia Leo Geoghegan
Ford XR Falcon GT 130 1
3 E 1 60 Alec Mildren Alfa Romeo Australia Doug Chivas
Australia Max Stewart
Alfa Romeo 1600 GTV 130 4
4 E 2 61 Alec Mildren Alfa Romeo Australia Kevin Bartlett
Australia Laurie Stewart
Alfa Romeo 1600 GTV 130 3
5 C 1 30 BMC Works Team United Kingdom Tony Fall
Australia Bob Holden
Morris Cooper S 128 14
6 C 2 37 C Smith Australia Charlie Smith
Australia Barry Seton
Morris Cooper S 127 15
7 C 3 29 BMC Works Team Finland Timo Makinen
Australia John French
Morris Cooper S 127 12
8 C 4 28 BMC Works Team United Kingdom Paddy Hopkirk
Australia Brian Foley
Morris Cooper S 126 11
9 E 3 63 STP Australia Arthur Davis
Australia Paul Mander
Alfa Romeo 1600 GTV 126 20
10 C 5 40 Australia Damon Beck
Australia Lakis Manticas
Morris Cooper S 125 18
11 D 3 55 Needham Motors Australia Warren Weldon
Australia John Hall
Studebaker Lark 124 10
12 C 6 45 Australia John Millyard
Australia Anndy Frankel
Morris Cooper S 124 16
13 D 4 49 Australia Mike Savva
Australia Bob Wilkinson
Ford XR Falcon GT 124 8
14 C 7 36 Australia Peter Brown
Australia Bob Cook
Morris Cooper S 123 21
15 D 5 58 Australia Bill Burns
Australia Chris Brauer
Alfa Romeo Giulia Super 122 23
16 D 6 57 Scuderia Veloce Australia David McKay
Australia George Reynolds
Audi Super 90 122 25
17 D 7 50 Australia Greg Cusack
Australia Bill Brown
Ford XR Falcon GT 121 9
18 D 8 54 Ford Australia Australia Bob Jane
Australia Spencer Martin
Ford XR Falcon GT 118 5
19 E 4 64 Australia Barry Sharp
Australia Lindsay Derriman
Dodge Phoenix TD2 118 29
20 C 8 42 Scuderia Veloce Australia Bill Tuckey
Australia Max Stahl
Fiat 124 118 31
21 C 9 27 Australia Fred Sutherland
Australia Allan Mottram
Ford XR Falcon Automatic 117 22
22 D 9 48 Australia Bob Young
Australia Bob Sorrenson
Triumph 2000 117 33
23 A 1 2 Datsun Racing Team Australia John Roxburgh
Australia Doug Whiteford
Datsun 1000 117 38
24 C 10 47 Australia Bill Daly
Australia George Murray
Fiat 124 117 37
25 E 5 62 M.W. Motors Australia Paul Hawkins
Australia Syd Fisher
Alfa Romeo 1600 GTV 117 6
26 A 2 12 AMI Toyota Australia Dick Thurston
Australia Bill Buckle
Toyota Corolla 116 44
27 B 1 30 Gordon Stewart’s Sports Car Centre Australia Don Holland
Australia Peter Cray
Morris Cooper 116 36
28 A 3 1 Datsun Racing Team Japan Kunimitsu Takahashi
Japan Hideo Oishi
Datsun 1000 116 40
29 C 11 41 Scuderia Veloce Australia Mike Kable
Australia John Smailes
Fiat 124 115 32
30 A 4 8 Australia Jack Nougher
Australia David O'Keefe
Hillman GT 114 42
31 A 5 9 Australia Bob Edgerton
Australia David Toshack
Hillman GT 114 51
32 B 2 24 Shorton Motors Australia George Garth
Australia Geoff Westbury
Hillman Arrow 114 47
33 C 12 35 Australia Gary Cooke
Australia Trevor Meehan
Fiat 124 113 30
34 C 13 31 Australia Carl Kennedy
Australia Jack Murray
Prince Skyline GT 113 39
35 B 3 15 A Treloar Australia Doug Macarthur
Australia Arthur Treloar
Hillman Arrow 111 48
36 B 4 25 Australia Jane Richardson
Australia Midge Whiteman
Morris 1100S 110 58
37 B 5 18 Australia David Frazer
Australia Bernie Breen
Renault R8 109 57
38 C 14 34 Australia Lynn Brown
Australia David Bye
Fiat 850 109 55
39 B 6 13 Australia Clyde Hodgins
Australia Kevin Nipperess
Morris 1100S 108 56
40 D 10 59 Australia Bruce McIntyre
Australia Ken Stacey
Ford XR Falcon GT 106 13
41 A 6 5 Australia Chris Cronan
Australia Steve Parkes
Holden HB Torana 103 60
42 A 7 6 Australia Bruce Darke
Australia Bill Ford
Datsun 1300 102 59
43 B 7 20 Australia Lindsay Adcock
Australia Mike Schneider
Morris Cooper 100 35
44 A 8 3 Datsun Racing Team Australia Jim Smith
Australia John Colwell
Datsun 1300 100 52
45 B 8 17 Australia Bill Stanley
Australia Digby Cooke
Morris Cooper 96 43
46 B 9 19 Australia Jeff Thompson
Australia Bob Romano
Ford Cortina Mk.I 1500 96 49
47 D 11 56 Australia Gerry Lister
Australia David Seldon
Volvo 122S 86 26
48 C 15 44 Australia Don Smith
Australia Herb Taylor
Holden HD X2 75 27
DNF A 7 Australia Lindsay Little
Australia Stan Pomroy
Hillman GT 53
DNF A 4 Datsun Racing Team Australia Barry Tapsall
Australia Bevan Gibson
Datsun 1300 50
DNF B 22 Australia Glen Mackinnon
Australia John T. Smith
Ford Cortina Mk.I 1500 54
DNF B 23 Varsity Auto Centre Australia Rick Radford
Australia John Prisk
Morris Cooper 64 28
DNF C 33 Australia Mal Brewster
Australia Bob Skelton
Morris Cooper S 17
DNF C 32 Australia Murray Bailey
Australia John Hicks
Prince Skyline GT 34
DNF C 46 Australia Gary Hodge
Australia Glyn Scott
Morris Cooper S 24
DNF C 26 Australia John Leffler
Australia Les Carne
Morris Cooper S 116 19
DSQ D 51 Australia Bob Beasely
Australia Des West
Ford XR Falcon GT 128 7
DSQ A 11 AMI Toyota Australia Barry Ferguson
Australia Brian Sampson
Toyota Corolla 117 45
DSQ A 10 AMI Toyota Australia Bruce Hindhaugh
Australia Peter Macrow
Toyota Corolla 116 46
DSQ B 21 Australia Peter Williamson
Australia Alex Macarthur
Toyota Corona 116 41

Statistics

References

  • Greenhalgh, David; Thomas B. Floyd; Bill Tuckey (2000). Australia's Greatest Motor Race 1960-1999. Chevron Publishing Group. pp. 146–153 & 455. ISBN 1-875221-12-3. 

Further reading

External links

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