As the sun began to set on Sunday, it was Jake Hill who made a brilliant start in his HWM-Jaguar, but fell back to third place behind Richard Woolmer's HWM-Cadillac and the intimidating form of Bill Shephard's Ford Battlebird. The Battlebird put up a strong fight but couldn't match the Jaguar's cornering speeds, allowing Jake Hill to get a nose ahead into the first part of St Mary’s to make the pass. The Battlebird, though, would be forced to retire mere seconds later with mechanical problems.
That left the way clear for Hill to chase down first place, and his Jaguar was nibbling on the rear bumper of Woolmer's Cadillac a few turns later before Woolmer's car stepped out onto the grass after the Chicane, allowing Hill to power to the front.
While Hill maintained a consistent lead negotiating backmarkers, Tiff Needell was jostling for position in the midfield, dropping down the order to sixth after losing position to Mathias Sielecki's Aston Martin DB3S and the Cooper-Jaguar of Guy Harman. Needell's miserable race was completed with a ten-second penalty for jumping the start.
By this point, the leading pair of Hill and Woolmer looked untouchable, pulling a 12-second gap from Scott Malvern in third place. The race was starting to look like a formality, when Guy Harman's Cooper-Jaguar speared off into the banking collecting the motorsport equivalent of a broken nose and leaving a plume of smoke as its tyres rubbed on the car's crushed bodywork.
The confusion gave Woolmer another chance to challenge for the top slot, as he bounced along the grass to take first position from Hill. Alas, Woolmer couldn't maintain the pace against Hill's quicker and more composed Jaguar.
Having seen off that last scrap, Hill would build his lead from Woolmer to take the win with a lead of more than 3.5 seconds, with third place going to Scott Malvern.
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Freddie March Memorial Trophy