1965 Australian Touring Car Championship

The 1965 Australian Touring Car Championship was the first Australian Touring Car Championship to be contested under Group C regulations. The championship was contested over a single race staged at Sandown International Raceway.^[1] The championship was won by Norm Beechey driving a Ford Mustang, the first victory by a V8 car and the first of five title to be won by Mustangs. It was Beechey's first title.

Race summary

The change in regulations had penalised most heavily those driving Holdens, like Norm Beechey and Brian Muir, and Bob Jane's Jaguar, as the practice of overboring engines was effectively outlawed. So 4.1 litre Jaguars and 3.4 litre Holdens were now illegal.

Bob Jane took pole position in his Mustang which had been acquired only weeks prior to the race after Beechey's early season form had demonstrated the clear superiority of a Mustang over the class leading Ford Cortinas and Morris Cooper S racers. After Beecheys had mechanical problems in practice second fastest was the Ford Galaxie of John Reaburn, four second slower than Jane.

Jane won the start with Muir up to second ahead of Reaburn, Ian Geoghegan in his Ford Cortina and Beechey was quickly up to fifth from his rear of grid start. Beechey was leading by lap seven. By then Reaburn was fading with brake problems and Jane was starting to overheat. He pitted to retire on lap 23. Geoghegan battled with Jim McKeown for second after Beechey backed of once he had lapped the field. McKeown had engone failure in the late running in his Cortina, leaving Geoghegan second. Muir and rookie Canadian Allan Moffat in his Cortina fought over third until Muir picked up the pace late in the race to secure third.

Results

Pole position: Bob Jane^[2]
Race results:^[3]

References

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