The exciting Watergate Bay Sprint will continue its innovation of the popular closed-road event, by introducing a new category specifically for Electric Vehicles for the fifth anniversary, this 16/17 September, near Newquay in Cornwall.
The ground-breaking event was the first closed-road motorsport speed event to take place in England back in 2018 with the inaugural running of the Hillclimb from Watergate Bay itself. The weekend would then switch to a `Sprint` format in 2021, starting on the Newquay side of the B3276 at Trevelgue, tackling the 850-metre course back towards the Watergate beach resort.
Considered one of the highlights of the UK motorsport speed calendar, organisers of the prestigious event Watergate Bay Motorsport, have continued to innovate their offering and will now introduce a new class, specifically for Electrified Vehicles.
Whilst `EVs` are quickly becoming a common fixture on our roads, their use in motorsports and competition is largely lowkey outside of the global Formula E and Extreme E series.
But with most automotive manufacturers now offering a dynamic range of electric vehicles and with EV technology developing at a rapid rate, their use in competition has seen a large increase over the past few years and Watergate Bay Sprint is set to embrace their presence with a dedicated class for the 2023 event.
Dave Brenton, Deputy Event Director is delighted to be able to continue planning for this year’s event.
“We are very excited by the prospect of welcoming electric vehicles to this year’s Watergate Bay Sprint,” he says.
“There are still only a handful of events across the UK which cater for EVs but we fully recognise their place in both day-to-day transport and competition as well. Introducing a dedicated category enables those with anything from a Tesla to a Nissan Leaf the chance to compete in a Standard Cars class and enjoy the event toe-to-toe with our other competitors.”
“The introduction of electric vehicles also goes hand in hand with our Carbon contribution programme which will look at reducing the environmental impact of the event and we are working hard to finalise the project in the near future.”
Motorsport UK, the sport’s governing body is fully behind the introduction of EVs to the Sprint.
David Richards, Chair of Motorsport UK, commented: “At Motorsport UK we are very conscious of our responsibility to reduce the sport’s carbon footprint and our environmental impact and encourage all our clubs to look at ways in which we can achieve this objective. To ensure a sustainable future for the motorsport community, we need to adopt a variety of new technologies from sustainable fuels to electric vehicles and demonstrate them at our leading events. I congratulate Watergate Bay Sprint, a wonderful showcase of motorsport, for introducing electric vehicles into the 2023 event, embodying our vision and journey towards a net-zero sport.”
As in previous years, Watergate Bay Sprint will also continue to donate profits to local charities. From its inception, Watergate Bay Motorsport has ensured charities like the Cornwall Air Ambulance have benefited from over £30,000 since 2018.
For more information on Watergate Bay Sprint, please visit:
www.watergatebaymotorsport.co.uk
You can catch up with all the latest news from the event on its social media feeds
-ENDS
