In the first official practice session late on Friday afternoon Martin Brundle qualified the Aston Martin Project 212 car on pole but by 12.50 on Saturday the car had become a non starter when Gary Pearson had the bad luck to crash.

From the start Steve Hitchins, Derek Bell and last year's winner Nigel Corner were at it hammer and tongs but by lap four the Jochen Mass Chevrolet Corvette Stingray which had started fourth on the grid was leading at a furious pace. Phil Hill mis-read a pit signal and pitted after five laps, handing over to son Derek who immediately set off after the leaders putting in a string of fastest laps.

Mass was still in first place when he handed over to the Stingray's owner Ulli Berberich Martini at half distance and when Neil Corner handed the silver lightweight E-Type Jaguar over to Mark Hales the cars started to spread out. Hales held second place. Derek Bell handed the Ferrari 330 LMB over to Peter Hardman who found that the overheating brakes were fading spectacularly in true Ferrari tradition. Derek Hill had been on a mighty charge, picked Hardman off and thundered through to second place only 9.757 seconds behind Mark Hales at the flag.

Jochen Neerpasch brought the other Shelby Cobra back in one piece in third followed six seconds later by Berberich Martini in his Stingray. To everyone in the Aston Martin Owners Club's relief Draper in the other Aston Martin Project car 214 finished fifth 27.812 seconds behind the winner.

There were high jinx aplenty after the prizegiving as one after another the winning cars performed massive wheelies off the line to the delight of the crowd.

Fastest lap went to Derek Hill at 1:28.905 compared with the best lap of the first place Hales E-Type of 1:29.974 seconds.