Paddock Motorsport put on a spirited display during the British GT season finale at Brands Hatch last weekend, with both its cars showing the sort of pace that brings big points, even if circumstances conspired against them. Mark Smith and Martin Plowman enjoyed a superb start to the final two-hour race of the year, running comfortably in the fight for the top six before some damage led to a seized door on their McLaren GT3 during their pit stop, and a desperately unlucky penalty then robbed them of an outright top-10 finish. Likewise, the Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Ed McDermott and Matt Cowley excelled across the race, gradually picking up places until the crew found themselves not only in the battle for a breakthrough GT4 Pro-Am podium, but potentially a class win before their hopes were dashed when the #12 was caught in a collision late on. Regardless of the results, Paddock Motorsport still heads into the winter break having enjoyed a strong 2024 British GT season. This year marked the team’s biggest entry ever, with three cars and six drivers. From those the team has celebrated two GT4 podium finishes and established itself as a regular challenger to the outright top six. Smith and Plowman have also enjoyed a strong run-in, finishing inside the top five in the GT3 Pro-Am class in each of the last two races helping them to ninth in the class championship. Despite the non-score in the finale, McDermott and Cowley round out the year eighth in GT4 Pro-Am. Brands Hatch represented one final chance to push for big scores, and neither car wasted that initially as Smith made a blinding start to vault from 11th on the grid up to eighth. Even though he lost out to a rival BMW when he was baulked by GT4 traffic around the Druids hairpin, Smith showed consistent pace and was soon duelling with newly crowned Silver-Am champion Shaun Balfe’s Garage 59 McLaren. Balfe went for a lunge into Graham Hill corner but collided with the side of the Paddock McLaren, and that would have consequences when Smith brought the car in for its mandatory stop. As he and Plowman attempted to switch seats, the McLaren’s door jammed shut after the hit, forcing the crew to complete their change via the wrong side of the car, sliding across the chassis from the passenger door. That cost vital time, with Plowman emerging in 10th to rejoin the race. A disrupted second half littered by full course yellow caution periods meant he never really got the chance to attack those in front, and things took a turn when the car was handed a drive-through penalty when Plowman accidentally clipped the rear of a GT4 car in front that had braked unexpectedly heading onto the pit straight. The #9 would finish 11th overall, but that did at least mean the car brought home some points due to some non-scoring guest entries ahead. It also put them fifth in the points-scoring Pro-Am order, which on reflection is a fine result, it just should have been more. The Mercedes-AMG GT4 also endured a dramatic race. McDermott took the start and began to rise up the order as he too picked cars off one by one. The car made its way inside the top five in class before McDermott stopped to hand to Cowley, and a slick change got the car out and up to fourth in class, right behind the rival Mahiki Racing Lotus. With a first podium, and even the class leader, in sight, Cowley pushed as hard as he could until a rare error entering Stirlings sparked a collision that would rule the car out. Still, there’s no denying the progress the crew has made across recent races. Paddock Motorsport will now reset and begin planning for the 2025 campaign, but not before it has rounded out the GT Cup season at Snetterton this coming weekend.

Paddock Motorsport is geared up for one final British GT Championship attack in 2024 as the season finale at Brands Hatch beckons. After six events and a combined 14 hours of racing so far, the 2024 British GT campaign will come to a close with a two-hour contest in Kent this weekend, giving Paddock’s twin entries one final chance to shine. The McLaren 720S GT3 Evo will again be shared by Mark Smith and Martin Plowman, with the pair confident of pushing on from their best result of the year so far last time out at Donington Park. Despite a bruising two-hour race in Derbyshire, Smith and Plowman still brought the #9 car home eighth overall and fifth in the GT3 Pro-Am category to record their biggest points haul to date. Likewise, the Mercedes-AMG GT4 shared by Ed McDermott and Matt Cowley also goes into the finale on an upward curve, having made huge progress across recent races. The pair have been knocking on the door of the GT4 Pro-Am podium, having finished fourth in the category in each of the last two races. Last time out at Donington represented their most impressive performance yet, the pair also finishing fourth overall from the 19-strong GT4 field. This weekend will mark the first time since 2009 that Brands Hatch has hosted the final race of the season, and the 2.4-mile Grand Prix Circuit represents a unique challenge to drivers and teams. While the shorter Indy Circuit is one of the most-used tracks in the UK, the GP loop through the woods is an altogether different beast, featuring big elevation changes, fast turns and blink apexes. The circuit’s strict noise restrictions also mean testing is extremely limited there, with no British GT teams able to get up and running before practice on Saturday, meaning everybody must start from scratch. 

Paddock Motorsport may have taken some blows during last weekend’s British GT Championship event at Donington Park, but the team’s sheer perseverance shone through as its two cars celebrated their best points finishes to date. Ed McDermott and Matt Cowley produced their best performance of the season so far to finish a superb fourth overall in GT4 aboard their Mercedes-AMG, coming agonisingly close to a breakthrough podium. Mark Smith and Martin Plowman’s GT3 McLaren may have been roughed up more than once, but the pair fought on to finish an eventual eighth overall, and an impressive fifth in the GT3 Pro-Am class, also securing their best points haul of the year. The fact the team leaves the penultimate race of the year having faced down the challenges thrown at it and come out the other side with a season-best score speaks volumes about the rate of improvement and sheer fighting spirit within the squad. Both of Paddock’s cars proved themselves as ones to watch from early in the weekend, with both the McLaren and the Mercedes-AMG showing pace that would make them contenders in the two-hour race. After two practice sessions in mixed conditions, qualifying took place on a largely dry track, with Smith and Plowman placing the GT3 12th on the grid on combined times, and McDermott and Cowley sixth in GT4 Pro-Am, 13th overall in GT4. Sunday promised much, with the weather clearing for a fully dry race, and both Paddock cars put on a slick showing, despite more than a few obstacles being chucked in the road. The first one came early, when Smith was forced to take avoiding action into turn one as the 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes GT3 that had started on the front row was tipped into a spin and came to rest broadside across Smith’s bonnet. The quick-thinking American took to the gravel and, while he avoided damage, the lost time dropped the car to the tail of the field. Undeterred, Smith put on a great charge, scything through the GT4 traffic ahead to recatch the GT3 field. He then engaged in a tight fight with the J&S Motorsport Audi and Century Motorsport BMW, eventually working his way up to eighth and suddenly the car was back in with a chance. That was until Smith was punted into a spin by the chasing Garage 59 McLaren, the Paddock car coming to a rest right in the middle of the track. Mercifully everybody missed Smith, who did well to restart the machine and get out of trouble. He pitted for Plowman from tenth, and a well-timed stop from the Paddock crew got the car back out in ninth. The lost time would prove impossible to claw back, but Plowman pressed on and picked up a further place when the Team Abba Mercedes-AMG crashed out late on. In GT4, things were more straightforward, even if McDermott and Cowley kept the nerves jangling by coming agonisingly close to their first silverware of the season. Having been blocked on two of his fastest laps in qualifying, McDermott was fired up to make progress in the race, and did not hold back when the lights went out, taking advantage of the opening lap chaos to make his way up to fifth in class on the opening lap. The momentum didn’t let up, as McDermott’s consistency helped him gain a full six places overall by the time the pit window opened, also slipping past the rival Xentek Motorsport Porsche to run fourth in Pro-Am by the time he stopped to hand to Cowley. Cowley rejoined eight second behind the Century Motorsport BMW that ran third in class and, with a podium in sight, he began to eat into the gap, trimming tenths off the M4 with each lap. Cowley had just got within sight when the safety car was called following a scary accident for a Ginetta at Melbourne Hairpin that required lengthy barrier damage repairs. With just two laps of green-flag running left when racing did resume, Cowley piled the pressure on the BMW ahead but was run wide, eventually settling for fourth in class and fifth overall at the flag. That then became fourth overall when the Optimum McLaren was penalised post-race for speeding under the caution period. It may not have been a podium, but there’s no doubting how impressive McDermott and Cowley’s performance was, and the duo will be hopeful of going even better in the season finale at Brands Hatch later in the month.