2018 St Mary's Trophy Part 1 – race report

Huff blasted off the front row once the flag dropped, but he was a bit too eager and received a ten-second penalty for his trouble. Without pits-to-car radio, Huff was unaware of this, and in the early stages battled mightily with fellow Lotus Cortina man Ash Sutton and Matt Neal in the 4.4-litre Studebaker Lark Daytona 500. Andy Jordan, who started from the back row, was the man on the move, however, and the rallycrosser turned touring car ace tore through the field in his Lotus Cortina and was up to ninth place within four laps. Progress was blunted somewhat for a few laps mid-race after he struggled to find a way past the lumbering Ford Galaxie 500 of Pikes Peak hero Roman Dumas. After attempting several overtakes, he eventually found a way past that didn’t involve driving on the grass, and homed in on the lead battle.

Once in the lead, Sutton eked out his advantage over his pursuers, but the reigning British Touring Car Champion dived into the pits late in the day which promoted Huff back into the ‘lead’ as Priaux took Neal for second. Unaware that second place was actually first, Priaulx tried everything he could to get past Huff on the final tour, and was only made aware that he had won during the post-race interviews. Neal was second from Jordan, with Huff classified in fourth place.