Kieran Roberts Art

The famous Bathurst 1000 started out as a 500 mile race at the Phillip island circuit in 1960, moving to Mount Panorama in 1963. Originally created as a scenic tourist road, it's unguarded drop-offs and blind, plunging corners provided a challenge to the showroom-stock cars, which raced in price-bracket classes. Here, we see the 1964 edition of the race being represented by the Phil Ismay / Bob Skelton Holden EH 179 chasing the Les Park / John Roxburgh Renault - Gordini R8, the Matt Daddo / Keith Russell 850 Mini, and the Jim Bonthorne / John Dando Cortina sporting rear end damage. A field of fifty-six cars started, with just eight not finishing. While modern V8 Supercars complete the slightly longer lap in just over 2 minutes, the fastest lap in '64 was 3 min 21.3 sec.