Ford Works Team (Australia)

The Ford Works Team (Australia) was a former Australian motor racing team that was supported by the Ford Motor Company of Australia. The team was formed in 1962 and was wound up when Ford withdrew from motor racing at the end of 1973. Drivers for the works team included Allan Moffat, Fred Gibson, Harry Firth, Bob Jane, Barry Seton, Bruce McPhee, John French, Ian Geoghegan and his brother Leo.

In 1962 the Firth Motors workshop at Queens Avenue, Auburn (Melbourne) became the base for the Ford works team with Harry Firth as team manager. At the 1962 Armstrong 500 at Phillip Island Firth and Jane drove a Ford XL Falcon to victory and the following year won again this time in a Ford Cortina Mk.I GT at the first Armstrong 500 run at Bathurst. In 1964 Bob Jane and George Reynolds were first across the line at Bathurst in a works Cortina GT and also that year Harry Firth took out the Ampol Trial.

1966 saw Firth and navigator Graham Hoinville take out the inaugural Southern Cross Rally in a Cortina. In 1967 Firth won another Bathurst 500 with co-driver Fred Gibson in a 4.7 litre (289 cui) Ford XR Falcon GT, with the Geoghegan brothers finishing in second place after a re-count of the lap scores (The Geoghegan's were actually flagged in first, but they had mistakenly been credited with a lap early in the race when Leo Geoghegan ran out of fuel just after the pits and returned to pit lane via the back of the pits. Firth knew this and successfully protested against his team mates). It was the first time a V8 powered car had won the race. Then in 1968 Firth and Hoinville won the first Australian Rally Championship in a Cortina.

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