The South Australian Centenary Grand Prix was conceived as a one-off celebration marking the centenary of South Australia's founding as a British colony in 1836. Motor racing had not returned to an Australian Grand Prix-level event since the 1935 race at Phillip Island, and the South Australian Centenary provided an opportunity to stage a high-profile event. The race was organised by the Sporting Car Club of South Australia and promoted by Centenary Road Races Limited, an Adelaide-based body formed for the occasion. Entries were open to factory-built and catalogued racing cars and sports cars of any engine capacity, with other entries also considered on their merits. Twenty-seven cars ultimately took the start.
The race was held on a 7.8-mile (12.55 km) course of sealed public roads — the first road race for cars ever held in South Australia. Special amendments to the Road Traffic Act were required to permit the closure of the roads. The course ran through the countryside between Port Elliot and Victor Harbor and was used for racing on this one occasion only. The race comprised 32 laps for a total distance of approximately 250 miles (400 kilometres).
Like the majority of major Australian motor races of the era, the event used a handicap-start system. Slower competitors left first, with others starting at timed intervals calculated according to their predicted performance. The winner was the first car to cross the line after 32 laps regardless of when it had started, and weather on the day was sunny.
Pre-race favourite Les Murphy drove a MG P-type from a handicap of 40 minutes to win the race, finishing more than ten minutes clear of Tim Joshua, who drove a similar MG P-type into second place. Bob Lea-Wright took third in a Terraplane Special. Fourth overall was Alec Poole in an Oldsmobile Special, and fifth was Barney Dentry in a Riley Special.
Murphy's winning time over the 32 laps was 3 hours, 57 minutes and 36 seconds, at an average speed of 68.5 miles per hour (110.2 km/h) across the full handicap distance. The fastest actual running time was set by Ossie Cranston, sixth-placed on the road but recorded sixth, who drove a Ford V8 Special from a five-minute handicap and completed the race in 3 hours, 20 minutes and 17 seconds. The fastest individual lap was set by Tom Peters in a Bugatti at 5 minutes 47 seconds, though Peters subsequently retired. Three competitors — McDonald, Anderson, and Abbott — were flagged off during the race for exceeding the time limit.
The Port Elliot-Victor Harbor circuit was a novel venue for its era and the event's exceptional status in the interim period between recognised Australian Grands Prix led to its later inclusion in the official sequence. Bob Lea-Wright, who finished third at Port Elliot in the Terraplane Special, would return the following year to finish second at the 1939 Australian Grand Prix at Lobethal, again behind a smaller, lighter car.
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