The 1967 Gallaher 500 was a motor race for Production Saloon Cars[1] held at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia on 1 October 1967. The race, which was the eighth running of the Phillip Island 500/Bathurst 500, was organised by the Australian Racing Drivers Club Ltd and promoted by Gallaher International (Aust) Ltd.

Layout of the Mount Panorama Circuit (1938-1986)
A "race replica" of the winning Ford XR Falcon GT of Harry Firth and Fred Gibson
A "race replica" of the second placed Ford XR Falcon GT of Ian Geoghegan and Leo Geoghegan

Each competing car was required to be a production saloon competing in standard specification as laid down in the manufacturer's standard workshop manual.[2] Optional extras and open exhausts were not permitted.[2] To be eligibile to compete, a car had to be an Australian built or assembled model of which 200 examples had been registered in Australia by 30 September 1967, or a fully imported model of which 100 examples had been registered in Australia by the same date.[2]

In a seminal moment for the race, the first Australian-built V8-powered Ford Falcons competed in the form of seven Falcon GTs and a Falcon automatic. In a race long duel against three Alfa Romeo 1600 GTVs, two entered by Alec Mildren Racing and one by M.W. Motors, the Ford Motor Company-entered Falcon GTs achieved a one-two finish with Harry Firth and Fred Gibson acknowledged as race winners after confusion over lap-scoring briefly left uncertainty over the results. Brothers Leo and Ian Geoghegan finished second with the two Alec Mildren Racing Alfa Romeos of Doug Chivas / Max Stewart and Kevin Bartlett / Laurie Stewart all finishing on the same lap as the winning car. It was Firth's fourth Phillip Island 500/Bathurst 500 victory, equalling Bob Jane's record.

The confusion over the result stemmed from the Geoghegan brothers' 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 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, 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 teammates for the race, with Leo contending until his death in 2015 that he and his brother won the race.[3]

Class structure

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Cars competed in five classes based on the purchase price of the vehicle in Australian dollars.

Class A

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The lowest class was for under cars retailing for less $1,800. It comprised Datsun 1000 and 1300, Hillman GT,[1] Holden Torana and Toyota Corolla.

Class B

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

Class C

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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 GT.

Class D

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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 single entries of Alfa Romeo Giulia, Audi Super 90, Studebaker Lark, Triumph 2000 and Volvo 122.

Class E

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

Practice results

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For 1967, race regulations were changed such that all grid positions were decided on practice times, regardless of class.[4] Prior to this, the cars were gridded according to practice times but within their respective classes with the highest class starting at the front of the grid and so on.

The first ten places were as follows:

Pos. No. Entrant[1] Driver Car Qual.
1 53 Ford Motor Company   Ian Geoghegan Ford XR Falcon GT 3:03.0
2 52 Ford Motor Company   Fred Gibson Ford XR Falcon GT 3:03.2
3 61 Alec Mildren Racing Pty. Ltd.   Kevin Bartlett Alfa Romeo 1600 GTV 3:03.5
4 60 Alec Mildren Racing Pty. Ltd.   Doug Chivas Alfa Romeo 1600 GTV 3:05.2
5 54 Ford Motor Company   Bob Jane Ford XR Falcon GT 3:05.2
6 62 M.W. Motors Pty. Ltd   Paul Hawkins Alfa Romeo 1600 GTV 3:05.7
7 51 J. & B. Motors   Des West Ford XR Falcon GT 3:06.0
8 49 M. Savva   Mike Savva Ford XR Falcon GT 3:06.8
9 50 Gregory's (Motors) Pty. Ltd.   Greg Cusack Ford XR Falcon GT NA
10 55 Needham's Motors Pty. Ltd.   Warren Weldon Studebaker Lark NA

Race results

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

Statistics

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  • Pole Position - #53 Ian Geoghegan - 3:03.0
  • Fastest Lap - #52 Fred Gibson - 3:03 (lap record)
  • Average Speed - 116 km/h
  • Race Time - 6:55:08

References

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  • 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.
  1. ^ a b c d e f g Official Programme, The Gallaher 500, Bathurst, 1st October 1967
  2. ^ a b c Extra Class in Gallaher '500', Australian Motor Manual, July 1967, page 27
  3. ^ Mount Panorama Bathurst - The Great Race - 1967 highlights
  4. ^ Bill Tuckey, Australia'a Greatest Motor Race, The Complete History, 1981, page 122
  5. ^ a b c David Greenhaigh, Thomas B. Floyd & Bill Tuckey, Australia's Greatest Motor Race 1960-1999, page 522

Further reading

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  • Evan Green's World of Motor Sport, 1977, pages 191–192
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