The 1971 Hardie-Ferodo 500 was a motor race held on 3 October 1971 at the

Mount Panorama Circuit Mount Panorama Circuit, officially Mount Panorama/Wahluu via dual naming, is a motor racing track located in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is situated on Mount Panorama and is best known as the home of the Bathurst 1000 motor race ...

just outside Bathurst in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It was open to production vehicles competing in showroom condition, with the field divided into five classes based on the purchase price of the vehicle in Australian dollars. Although an outright winner was officially recognised, all other official awards were for class results only. The race was the 12th in a sequence of annual "

Bathurst 500 The Bathurst 1000 (known for sponsorship reasons as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supercars Championship, ...

" production car races dating back to the

1960 Armstrong 500 The 1960 Armstrong 500 was an endurance motor race for Australian made or assembled standard production sedans. The event was held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Victoria, Australia, Victoria, Australia on 20 November 1960 over 167 ...

. The outright winner was

Allan Moffat Allan George Moffat, Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 10 November 1939 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a Canadian-born Australian racing driver known for his four championships in the Australian Touring Car Championship, six wins ...

driving a Ford XY Falcon GT-HO Phase III. The 1971 race is perhaps best remembered for Sydney driver Bill Brown's lucky escape after the biggest single car crash in the race's history. On lap 43, the right front tyre on Brown's Phase III GTHO Falcon burst at over on the approach to the daunting McPhillamy Park, which in 1971 had no runoff area on the outside of the track, just the earth bank and a fence made of railway sleepers on top. The Falcon barrel-rolled along the fence (with two marshals lucky to escape with their lives by only just scampering out of the way) and ended upside down after 3½ rolls. Brown was lucky because his seat broke in the first roll and he was lying flat in the car as it continued rolling. Amazingly his only injuries were a grazed shin and a black eye. 1971 will also be remembered as the year that Moffat had a stray cardboard

Southwark Bitter Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

carton attach itself to the front of his GTHO for a number of laps, blocking the car's radiator. Pit boards told him of the problem and the team attempted to call Moffat in for a quick stop to remove the carton, but Moffat, seeing no change to the engine temperature and no reduction in the car's performance, waved them off and remained on the track until his scheduled pit stop with the approval of Ford Works Team manager Howard Marsden.Mount Panorama Bathurst - The Great Race - 1971 highlights
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Class structure

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

Class A

Class A was for cars costing less than $2,150. It was contested by Datsun 1200, Mazda 1300 and

Toyota Corolla The is a series of compact cars (formerly Subcompact car, subcompact) manufactured and marketed globally by the Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation. Introduced in 1966, the Corolla was the best-selling car worldwide by 1974 and has bee ...

Class B

The $2,151 to $2,500 class had the smallest number of starters with just four cars: Datsun 1600 and Mazda Capella 1600.

Class C

The $2,501 to $3,150 class saw a mix of

Ford Cortina The Ford Cortina is a medium-sized family car manufactured in various body styles from 1962 to 1982. It was the United Kingdom's best-selling car of the 1970s. The Cortina was produced in five generations (Mark I through to Mark V, although of ...

, Ford Escort, 2.8 litre Holden Torana GTR,

Honda 1300 The Honda 1300 is an automobile which was produced by Japanese manufacturer Honda from 1969 to 1972. The largest car manufactured by the company to that point, the front wheel drive 1300 was released as a sedan and coupé intended to compete prima ...

Mazda RX-2 The Mazda Capella, also known as the 626 in Europe, North America and Southeast Asia, is a mid-size car that was manufactured by Mazda from 1970 until 2002. Sold in the Japanese domestic market under the Capella name, the vehicle was also com ...

and

Morris Cooper S The Mini is a very small two-door, four-seat car, produced for four decades over a single generation, with many names and variants, by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors British Leyland and the Rover Group, and finally (br ...

Class D

The $3,151 to $4,350 class featured

Alfa Romeo Giulia Alfa Romeo Giulia () is the name of three not directly related model (line)s from Italian carmaker Alfa Romeo. The first were the four-door Type 105 entry-level compact executive sports sedans produced from 1962 to 1978; the second are the upda ...

, the E38 version of the

Chrysler Valiant Charger The Chrysler Valiant Charger was a two-door hardtop coupe introduced by Chrysler Australia in 1971. It was a short wheelbase version of the concurrent Australian Chrysler Valiant sedan. Introduced within the VH Valiant series, it continued as a ...

, Ford Falcon 500 and 3.0 litre

Holden Torana GTR XU-1 The Holden Torana is a mid-sized car that was manufactured by Holden from 1967 to 1980. The name apparently comes from a word meaning "to fly" in an unconfirmed Aboriginal Australian language. The original HB series Torana was released in 196 ...

Class E

For cars over $4,350. Apart from a single Fiat 124S, the class consisted only of Ford Falcon GT-HO Phase IIIs.

Top 10 Qualifiers

Results

Statistics

* Pole Position - #65 Allan Moffat - 2:38.9 * Fastest Lap - #58 Bob Morris - 2:40 (lap record) * Average Speed - 130 km/h * Race Time of winning car - 6:09:49.5

References

External links

1971 Race results & Official Program, www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au

1971 Bathurst 500 images, www.autopics.com.au
{{Bathurst 1000 races Motorsport in Bathurst, New South Wales Hardie-Ferodo 500