Following previous
racing events around the country, and most particularly
at the Sandown 250, Ford were discovering much
to their chargrin that the new Cleveland engines
were not proving to be as reliable as they should
have been.
Ford went into the 1970 race with
14 Falcon's and an air of uncertainty about their
engines, their brakes and the potential of the
opposition, particularly the Torana’s,
which had done very well at Sandown Park. Then
there were the new Chrysler Pacer's, an unknown
at the race track, and featuring a sweet 4 liter
245ci straight six with a four-barrel carburetor.
The Pacer was developed under the guidance of
Leo Geoghegan and, although slightly larger in
size than the Falcon’s,
it was, like the Torana, lighter. In practice,
Allan Moffat won pole position with a 2 min.
49 sec. lap, and the other works-entered Falcons
filled positions two and three on the grid.
But
practice did not increase Ford's confidence as
the Torana’s
had run all day with problem, whereas the Falcons
had suffered a lot of engine troubles and overnight
rebuilds were the order of the day for quite
a number of them.
The first
lap of the race gave heart to the Holden supporters
as Colin Bond, who had already worked up from
fourth on the grid, dived under Allan Moffat
under brakes to take the lead in his Torana XU1.
It didn't take Moffat long to re-pass Bond, however,
and the Canadian stayed in the No. 1 spot for
the remainder of the race. Behind him, however,
a lot of Falcons were in trouble.
The works car
of Fred Gibson and Barry Seton had its differential
seize and Bruce Hodgson, Gary Rush, David McKay,
Kyrn Aunger and Bob Beasley all suffered engine
failures. Bruce McPhee, also in a works car came
in second on the same lap as Moffat, but the
next Falcon home was the car of John Goss and
Bob Skelton, who had driven a good race to come
in seventh, theirs being the first non-works
Falcon to complete the distance.
