1954 International Races

Jacques Drion took the lead at the start, with Hans Haldemann assuming second place behind the French ace, and Murit, Bétemps and Strub already losing ground on the two leaders. Drion ran hard from the start, and was soon beating Eric Oliver's track record. At the halfway mark Drion was 6s ahead of his Swiss rival, seemingly on his way to victory. But Haldemann started to put some pressure on the French though, setting a new lap record, and the gap decreased every lap. Eventually it paid off as Drion went straight into the hay bales in the 16th of 20 laps, losing 15 seconds and the lead in the mishap. With only four laps left there was no time to catch Haldemann, who won by 10 seconds after a well timed effort.
Jean Murit was third early on, but was later passed by René Bétemps who went on to finish third by a nice 14s margin. Edgar Strub narrowly beat Australia's Bob Mitchell for 5th place after a race long duel, with Roland Benz and Renato Prati were a lap behind. Otto Schmid and Marcel Beauvais both retired in the first laps with mechanical troubles.