Bathurst 500 Mile race

To coincide with the release of the Historic Racing Car range “Bathurst series” here’s a brief history of the Bathurst 500

For those of you that are not familiar with “The Great Race” as its known today in Australia, here’s a little history. It all began at Phillip Island, 140klm South East of Melbourne in 1960. The Phillip Island track was a road circuit based around an airfield. It was the home of the first Australian Grand Prix in 1926 although the actual location was moved 2klm in the 1950’s

It was a race first suggested by Armstrong Shock Absorbers, an English company with an Australian subsidiary serving the OE market. The company's PR consultant, Ron Thonemann, put forward the idea of the race for standard cars and Armstrong's board bought it. A race for standard production cars with a minimum production of 100 over a distance of 500 miles. (The distance from Melbourne to Sydney) The first race was staged on the 20th November 1960.

Little was done to the cars for safety or performance in the early races. Hubcaps were removed and headlights were taped as the Phillip Island track had a lot of loose stones and this saved lights being broken and causing punctures. Other than that all that was added were driver names, race numbers and class letters. There were four classes A, B, C & D, these were based on showroom price. Class A being the cheaper.

It was a race that somehow captured the imagination of the Australian public and was one of the first, if not the first, motor races to be telecast. The first three races were held at the Island but in the 1962 the circuit broke up badly and it had poor facilities, even by 1960’s standards. It was also at the mercy of the fickle weather from the Bass Straight. So the Armstrong company looked around for somewhere to stage their next race in 1963 and Bathurst came up trumps.

When the flag dropped in 1963 the race had already become a legend with manufacturers doing special things to ensure that they could capture the prestige of an unofficial race win or a class victory. In 1963 there was still no recognition for an outright winner. More important was a class win as this had an effect on new car sales. Interestingly, only Australian-assembled cars were eligible for the race giving some indication of just how many types and models were bolted together in the “good old days” of massive tariff protection to the automotive industry.

We can thank the foresight of Bathurst Council for creating a scenic road to the crest of Bald Hills, a couple of kilometers south west of the city. The idea was an unemployment project during the Great Depression, funded by a State Government grant and the idea of a race circuit to replace the old and unsafe Vale Circuit had not been missed. The circuit was named “Mount Panorama” and quickly became the venue for many high profile race meetings both two and four wheeled. In 1963 it became the home of one of the worlds greatest motor races, the Bathurst 500 miles (Bathurst 1000klm today)

The race began at 9 am in those days. It would take a little over eight hours to complete 500 miles around Mt Panorama or 130 laps of the three-and-a-half mile circuit. (Today the Supercar V8’s are down to the six-hour mark for a race which now covers 1000klm or around 620 miles.) During the years it has had many names and sponsors. 1960 to 1965 Armstrong 500; 1966 & 1967 Gallagher 500; 1968 to 1972 Hardie Ferodo 500 and in 1973 it became part of the Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) run to group C regulations and was named the Hardie Ferodo 1000. Then in 1980 it was renamed the James Hardie 1000. In 1987, with sponsorship from Brewers Tooheys it became the Tooheys 1000 and in 1996 the AMP 1000. Since then it has had several other different sponsors and is now part of the Supercar V8 championship which doesn’t concern us and there is no intention to produce models for this series.

The cars that we intend to produce will be from 1960 to 1996 and not just the winners, we hope that there will be sufficient interest so as we can make some of the other runners from this great race. The early years were dominated by the European cars that were assembled in Australia but for many years, from the mid 60’s to the mid 80’s, the Aussie muscle cars were in control. It took a very special team to break the strangle hold and in 1985 TWR with their awesome V12 XJS Jaguar’s were the first non-Aussie car to win Bathurst since a BMC Mini in 1966. The writing was on the wall for the Aussie manufacturers. The race was now part of the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) and the big V8s were no match for the nimble turbo cars. First the Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500’s and then the Nissan GT-R’s in the late 80’s and early 90’s were just too good for the Aussie V8's and this probably resulted in the down fall of the race as it was then. Aussies were not interested in seeing Euro/Japanese cars that were not even sold in Australia. Attendance number dwindled and in 1997 the race was split into two; one for the V8’s and one for the 2.0lt Super Touring Cars but that is a completely different story.

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Dave Eames : Automodelli Studio
Specialists in 1/43 scale model cars from round the world