1971 Hardie-Ferodo 500

The 1971 Hardie-Ferodo 500 was a motor race held on 3 October 1971 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia.

The outright winner was Allan Moffat driving a Ford XY Falcon GT-HO Phase III.

On lap 43, the right front tyre on Brown's Phase III GTHO Falcon burst at over 100 mph (161 km/h) 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.

[3] 1971 will also be remembered as the year that Moffat had a stray cardboard Southwark Bitter 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.