2021 event dates: Saturday 18 & Sunday 19 September.
Previously named Watergate Bay Speed Hillclimb, the Watergate Sprint is returning in 2021. Cornwall’s only motorsport event on a closed public road, is back this year. Watch 100 cars and drivers race 1000 metres between Newquay holiday park and the Boardmasters fields above Watergate Bay.
Keep up to date with the build-up and race day action on Twitter and Facebook.
2019 weekend report
Coupled with stunning weather in the county, spectators headed to the motorsport extravaganza in their droves.
This year's fastest lap time was from Dorchester based Rodney Thorne who thundered his powerful five-litre Pilbeam MP43 to the fastest time on both days. A time of 31.27sec on Saturday and going slightly better on Sunday with a 30.63sec, ensuring he will be the man to beat for next year’s event.
Jointly organised by Newquay Auto Club, Plymouth Motor Club and Truro and District Motor Club, the Watergate Bay Speed Hillclimb in 2018 was the first hillclimb to take place since the passing of a Parliamentary law enabled timed motorsport events to take place on closed public roads.
This year the race will have some exciting changes. Thanks to approval from Motorsport UK, the governing body for the sport in the country, the challenging course will wind 850 metres along the B3276 coast road between Padstow and Newquay, an extension of 130 metres from its original length.
There will be a wide range of cars competing throughout the weekend, divided into 12 classes. Standard road going cars to highly modified racers and rally cars.
Spectators will be able to get a better view of the action thanks to a change in the location of the paddock and trade areas. Motorsport fans will be able to see much more of the hill and have full access to the paddock.
Last year, there was success for local crews on both days with Tavistock’s Doug Bennett taking the opening fastest time on the Saturday event in his powerful Sylva Striker kit-car, whilst Chard-based Stewart Lillington took his Radical SR4 kit-car, to the quickest run on Sunday.
The event will also be the figurehead of Cornwall Motorsport Month which takes place throughout September. The county has a rich heritage of motorsport activities throughout the year. The campaign is supported by Motorsport UK and Visit Cornwall and has been created to highlight the region as a prime destination for both tourism and motorsport.
The inaugural running of the Watergate Bay Hillclimb took place in 2018 and was dubbed a huge success after attracting a capacity entry and raising over £6,000 for the local charities Cornwall Air Ambulance and Cornwall Food Foundation. The event also donated on 2019.
Spectator information can be found here.
Full list of entries can be found here.
Road closure
As the Speed Hillclimb is a closed-road event the B3276 between Watergate Bay and Porth will be closed from 6am to 7pm each day. If you are travelling from Newquay, you will need to use the road past Newquay Airport and through Tregurrian, rather than the coast road.
