For 1933 the Light Car Club widened the entry regulations, raising the engine capacity limit from 2,000 cc to 2,300 cc to broaden the field of eligible machinery. Twenty cars were entered, of which fifteen took the start after four failed to appear or withdrew due to mechanical problems in practice. Non-starters included Bill Williamson's Bugatti Type 43, Doug Shepherd's Frazer Nash, Jack Clements's Bugatti Type 30, and Alan Chamberlain's Chamberlain Special.
Thompson, a New South Wales driver, arrived as a two-time former winner, having taken the Australian Grand Prix in 1930 and 1932. He was assigned a one-minute handicap for the Riley Brooklands, one of the smallest allowances in the field. The scratch position, offering no head start, was held by L.J. Jackson's Bugatti, though Jackson ultimately did not start.
The race used the established 6.5-mile rectangular public road circuit encircling parts of Phillip Island. The layout incorporated long straights — where speeds exceeding 95 mph were recorded on the back straight — and tighter corners including Jackson's Corner and Gentle Annie Corner. The surface was unsealed gravel and dirt. Race day conditions began as overcast with passing morning showers and later deteriorated into rain and hail, making the circuit slippery throughout.
The fifteen starters were dispatched at staggered intervals, with Ken McKinney's Austin the first away on a 26-minute allowance. Arthur Terdich, driving a Grand Prix-type Bugatti Type 37A supercharged from scratch, was last to leave the line. Terdich returned to the pits on the second lap with a broken oil pipe.
W.H. Lowe crashed his supercharged Lombard at Heaven Corner on the second lap, striking a fence and injuring five spectators; Lowe continued and was classified sixth. Mid-race saw further retirements: Carl Junker, the 1931 winner driving a Bugatti Monza Type 39, led until retiring around 150 miles with a broken connecting rod after running from a 12-minute handicap. Merton Wreford, whose Bugatti Monza Type 39 had also led, suffered transmission trouble approaching Hell Corner on the penultimate lap and was forced out. Wreford had set the race's fastest individual lap before his retirement.
Thompson steadily worked through the field from his modest one-minute allowance, managing the treacherous wet surface with particular skill. He crossed the line first after completing all 31 laps in an actual time of 2 hours 45 minutes 51 seconds. His handicap-corrected time was 3 hours 9 minutes 5 seconds, representing an average speed of 73.6 mph — slower than his own 1932 pace of 76.2 mph, attributed to the slippery surface.
Harold Drake-Richmond finished second in a Bugatti Type 37, with a corrected time of 3 hours 13 minutes 52 seconds. Les Jennings took third in an MG Magna, followed by Clarrie May in an Austin 7 supercharged and Ken McKinney in an Austin 7. Lowe was credited sixth despite his early crash. Norman Putt and Geoff Disher each completed the distance but were flagged off for exceeding the permitted time limit and were not classified as official finishers.
Only six cars finished within the allotted time, yielding a completion rate of 40 percent. Bugattis, which had dominated earlier editions, suffered particularly high attrition in 1933: four of the five Bugatti entries failed to reach the finish, retirement causes including connecting rod failure, transmission failure, a big-end failure, oil pipe failure, and battery trouble.
Thompson's third victory established him as the most successful Australian Grand Prix driver of the pre-war era. His win in the Riley Brooklands also ended the event's run of Bugatti dominance: it was the first non-Bugatti victory since 1929, when an Austin had prevailed. The handicap format, which allowed cars of widely varying performance to compete on near-equal terms, remained a defining characteristic of the Phillip Island editions of the early 1930s.
Contemporary press coverage from Melbourne was not entirely settled on the event's identity: The Argus of March 24, 1933, opened its report with the headline "Australian Grand Prix" but then described the race as "the Victorian Light Car Club's 200-mile race — the Fourth Australian Grand Prix," reflecting the continuing uncertainty around the event's official nomenclature in its early years.
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