Lewis Brown emerged from a thrilling three way fight with Stuart Middleton and Harry King to take the final race win of the 2016 Ginetta Junior Championship season.
While those three fought it out for victory, further back Daniel Harper was producing a mature drive on his way to ninth overall and the Rookie Cup title.
It was Harper’s Douglas Motorsport team-mate Middleton who started the race from pole position, with the overall series vice-champion holding the advantage into an early safety car period.
That came after Harry Dyson beached his G40 in the Stirlings gravel trap, and when the action resumed on lap four, Middleton and Brown immediately renewed their battle from the opening lap.
A wide moment for Middleton through Hawthorns gifted Brown the lead briefly, but heading through Sheene the HHC Motorsport man was shuffled to third as King joined the fight.
King took the lead for the first time heading into Paddock Hill Bend next time around, which kicked off a frenetic couple of laps in which the lead changed multiple times.
Brown made the decisive move into Clearways at the end of lap six though and held the lead until the finish, with the win being the perfect end to his three year tenure in the series.
Behind, Charlie Fagg would make his presence felt at the front as he battled for third with Middleton in the closing laps, grabbing the place on two separate occasions.
Middleton had finished the penultimate lap in second, but a last lap move from King secured him a fifth podium of his impressive Rookie campaign, with Middleton left to settle for third.
Fagg would lose ground on the last lap at Sheene meanwhile, with Seb Priaulx emerging from nowhere to take fourth at the finish, having fought back superbly after ending lap one back in eleventh.
Tom Wood completed the Rookie top three in fifth overall ahead of Geri Nicosia, with Fagg left to settle for seventh at the finish ahead of Seb Perez.
Harper meanwhile had reached a high of fifth at one stage, but knowing that a retirement could end his Rookie title hopes, he picked his battles in the frenetic midfield and took ninth at the flag.
The result was enough to give him the Rookie title twelve months on from his success in the Ginetta Junior Scholarship, with Priaulx and King completing the class top three.
Full race results can be found here.
