The actual car that won just the third Bathurst 500 (now known as the Bathurst 1000) in 1965, the Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500, will be part of the PremiAir Hire Bathurst winners’ category at the 2024 Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival on March 16 and 17.
After wins in the first two Bathurst endurance races held at Mount Panorama, the Ford Cortina scored a hat-trick of victories in 1965 with the updated GT500. With direct input from Ford’s competition manager Harry Firth, the car sported several mechanical upgrades to the engine, gearbox and suspension as well as a larger fuel tank. Bo Seton and Midge Bosworth drove the Cortina Mk.I GT500 to victory in 1965, overcoming the factory-entered Fords and the quickest of the Minis to win by two minutes.
The Cortina is coming to Adelaide courtesy of the National Motor Racing Museum in Bathurst and will be the oldest of the collection of Bathurst winners in the category. The PremiAir Hire Bathurst winners’ category is new for the 2024 Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival, featuring original Bathurst 500/1000 winners including the two-time winning Holden VH SS Commodore (1982 and 1983) and Holden ZB Commodore (2020 and 2022) plus the Nissan Skyline GT-R R32s that won in 1991 and 1992 with more Bathurst winners being announced in the coming weeks.
Held the week prior to the Australian Grand Prix, the Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival is a museum in motion, displaying historic, rare and significant racing vehicles on the Victoria Park section of the Adelaide Street Circuit.
Categories featuring Formula 1, V8 Supercars, Group C and A touring cars, sportscars and more will feature over the course of the Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival, in addition to on-track demonstrations, off-track displays, villas and more.
CLICK HERE to purchase tickets to the 2024 Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival.
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