The event was the brainchild of George Greenland, Jack Matthews, and Eddie Chandler and was first run in 1983, Originally named Enduro du Super Mare to fall in with the continental races such as the
Enduro du Touquet, it was organised by Enduro Promotions Ltd. The 3 hour race took place over a course of which was a flat-out straight along the beach and had 500 participants on motorcycles, quads and sidecars. The race was supported by an
arena trial in the adjacent Beach Gardens and a disabled quad race on the beach. The event was called
The International Beach Race at Weston-super-Mare in 1986 and the main race split into two. A national race on Saturday and an international race on the Sunday. There were no qualifying heats. The event was run under the
FIM International Sporting Code. In the early 1990s the organisation of the event was taken over by RHL Activities. It's principal, Gareth Hockey, had himself taken part in the inaugural race. A major crash involving multiple riders happened soon after the start of the main race causing the race to be red flagged. 18 riders were taken to hospital, one of them, Ty Kellett, in a critical condition. Emergency services couldn't regroup at the race in time for the race to be restarted run before nightfall so the race was cancelled. A plan to rerun the race the following Sunday was unsuccessful as sufficient medical cover couldn't be arranged at short notice. The crash initially put the future of the race in jeopardy. New safety measures were put in place in 2010 as a result of the crash.
North Somerset Council put the licence to run an autumn beach race out to tender and in February 2011 announced
Event 22 had won the contract. RHL Activities owned the rights to the name
Weston Beach Race and started negotiations to move the event to nearby
Burnham-on-Sea,
Brean or
Berrow. The issues were resolved and the event stayed at Weston being organised by RHL.
COVID-19 restrictions in the UK caused the 2020 meeting to be cancelled, and the 2021 event to be run on a smaller scale. In 2023 the National Outdoor Events Association awarded Weston the prestigious
Event of the Year – Private Sector award. A Vintage Race was added to the schedule in 2024. This race was for pre-1993 motorcycles. The race was originally scheduled to be the third round of the
2024 FIM Sand Races World Cup but was later replaced by the French
Ronde des sables de Loon-Plage. When issuing the updated calendar, the
FIM hoped to include Weston at a future date.
Storm Amy hit the UK on the weekend of the 2025 race causing Saturday's racing to be cancelled. Competitors and the public were advised to stay away from the site due to 'danger to life'. After a team of volunteers reinstated the facility early on Sunday, a revised schedule for racing was announced. All Saturday's races were run on Sunday. To fit two days races into one day all races were reduced in length. ==Race format==