The new Watergate Bay Speed Hillclimb, Cornwall’s only motorsport event on a closed public road, will take place on the weekend of 15/16 September 2018 after receiving approval from the Motor Sports Association (MSA) this week.
Competitors will tackle the course one at a time to try to record the fastest time along a section of the B3276, the picturesque coast road linking Padstow and Newquay. The stretch of road will be temporarily closed to normal road traffic for the duration of the event.
The start of the course will be on the road at Watergate Bay, one of Cornwall’s most popular tourist destinations. On each day of the event, a maximum of 90 cars will be allowed to participate.
Competitors will race in the direction of Newquay, with the breathtakingly beautiful North Cornwall coastline to their right, and cross the finish line 720 metres further up the hill.
The landmark event, which is being jointly organised by Truro and District Motor Club, Newquay Auto Club and Plymouth Motor Club, has been made possible by the passing of a new law that allows local motor clubs to apply for permission to temporarily close public roads and suspend the Road Traffic Act in order to host motorsport events.
It’s the first closed-road hillclimb to receive approval from the MSA, which governs four-wheeled motorsport in the United Kingdom, and the third closed-road event in all.
All profits from the inaugural running of the event will be donated to the Cornwall Air Ambulance and the Cornwall Food Foundation, which includes Jamie Oliver’s apprentice training scheme at Watergate Bay’s Fifteen restaurant.
The original idea for the event was put forward by Dave Brenton, who is Competition Secretary at Truro Motor Club and also Deputy Event Director for the Watergate Bay Speed Hillclimb. In 2013 he first wrote a letter outlining his proposal to the Watergate Bay Hotel, which is adjacent to the start of the new course, and received the full support of the luxury hotel from the outset.
Dave Brenton: “We’ve had great help over the past five years from Ian Davis, the MSA’s Regional, Rallies and Cross Country Executive, and excellent support for the event from local businesses and landowners. We hope the event will provide a real end-of-tourist-season boost to the local economy.”
The three organising clubs have almost completed the task of putting together a committee to run the Watergate Bay Speed Hillclimb,
