RAF Davidstow Moor opened in 1942 as a Coastal Command base on Bodmin Moor. After the war the site was left largely unused, and like numerous British wartime airfields it was adapted for motor racing in the postwar years. The circuit opened on 9 August 1952, with three races run over an original layout of approximately 4.2 km (2.6 miles) that made use of the main runways and contained just three corners, which some drivers considered straightforward in character.
The circuit was promoted jointly by the Cornish Vintage Car Club, founded in 1949, and the Plymouth Motor Club, which dated to 1908. The first event attracted an unexpected crowd of 3,000 spectators against an anticipated 800, despite difficult weather conditions.
From 1953 onward, a revised and shorter layout was adopted. This configuration reduced the circuit length to approximately 3.1 km (1.9 miles) and introduced a chicane before the first corner, making the layout more technically demanding. The start/finish straight remained in the same position as on the original layout. The revised circuit was used for all subsequent race meetings through 1955.
For the 1954 season, the organisers secured National Status permits and scheduled races for Formula One alongside sports cars and Formula Three machinery. The first Formula One race at Davidstow was held on 7 June 1954 before a crowd of 20,000 spectators, drawn despite high winds and driving rain by the novelty of Formula One racing in Cornwall. John Riseley-Prichard won in a Connaught-Lea Francis at 74.2 mph from Jack Walton and Anthony Brooks. The meeting was ultimately abandoned after a bridge over the track collapsed.
A second Formula One race was held on 2 August 1954 in foggy and drizzly conditions. John Coombs won in a Lotus Mk8 powered by a Lea Francis engine at 72.65 mph, with the next three places taken by Cooper-Bristols. This result is historically significant: the Lotus Mk8 was built as a sports car, but its engine capacity met the contemporary 2.5-litre Formula One limit, and the win is recognised as Lotus's first in a Formula One race. Lotus's first victory in a World Championship race using a purpose-built Formula One car came later, with Stirling Moss driving a Rob Walker-entered Lotus 18 at Monaco in 1960.
The 1955 season was planned from the outset as the circuit's last. The single 1955 meeting on 30 May brought the most competitive Formula One entry seen at Davidstow. Leslie Marr drove a Connaught B3 streamliner — one of only two such streamlined cars to compete at that level, the other being the Mercedes-Benz W196 — to victory at 85.84 mph. In the final Formula Libre race to be held at the circuit, Marr set the outright lap record at a fraction under 90 mph in the B3, clocking 1 minute 14 seconds for an average of 89.88 mph.
Davidstow's racing career thus lasted precisely three years, ending on a competitive note with genuine Formula One machinery present.
The circuit's location on the exposed heights of Bodmin Moor gave it a character shaped by Cornwall's unpredictable weather. Fog, rain, and wind were recurring features of race meetings throughout its short life. Today, an ultralight and microlight flying school operates at the former airfield, and traces of the wartime and racing infrastructure remain on the moorland site.