Paddock Motorsport scored its best result of the British GT Championship season last weekend with a hard-earned fifth place for Martin Plowman and Mark Smith during the Snetterton 300 double-header. Under a baking heatwave for much of the weekend, the #9 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Plowman and Smith backed up its best Qualifying performance of the year with a superb top-five finish in Race 1 around the three-mile circuit, then adding to that with eighth in a scrappy second contest. The Paddock duo arrived in Norfolk hopeful of lowering their previous best result of seventh, earned from the year’s first sprint race meeting at Oulton Park in May. While temperatures on track soared, the pace was equally hot for the #9 crew as they climbed into the top five in Pre-Qualifying on Saturday afternoon, giving them room for optimism ahead of the two short 10-minute Qualifying sessions. It would be a star performance from seven-time GT Cup race winner Smith that made the headlines, setting a lap quick enough for fifth on the grid for the opener and finishing as the fastest McLaren in the GT3 field. Plowman then followed up with 10th in Q2 despite sitting only a second shy of pole after a breathless contest. It all set the scene for Sunday, with Smith taking the rolling start for the opening encounter. Although he lost a spot initially, the American maintained a consistent pace to close onto the leading pack, holding station in sixth before diving in for Plowman when the pit window opened. A superbly executed stop from the team got Plowman installed and back out in fifth, the car elevated by some others ahead serving longer mandatory pit stops. Plowman emerged ahead of Hugo Cook’s Barwell Lamborghini, and the Huracan began to pressure Plowman over the final 15 minutes before Cook himself came under attack, releasing the Paddock McLaren to pull clear and bring home a best result of the campaign for himself and Smith in fifth place overall. It also maintained Paddock’s place as the top McLaren team in the opening contest. Riding high, Plowman took the start of Race 2. Their efforts to gain ground were aided by on off for a rival McLaren ahead of them, leaving Plowman in a tight battle with Marcus Clutton’s Orange Racing McLaren. Plowman got the run on Clutton in traffic late on in his stint, but was rudely shoved onto the grass when attempting to run around the outside of the Orange car through Riches. Plowman did well to hold the car as it skipped across the grass and through a marker board at high speed, rejoining the track losing just one spot. Smith took over shortly after the incident and rejoined still running in ninth. His pace brought him into the battle for a possible sixth, but with overtaking opportunities limited, the American instead kept his nose clean and banked solid points for eighth. Their combined results meant Smith and Plowman enjoyed their best-ever weekend score as a pairing, elevating them to ninth in the GT3 Drivers’ Championship.

Paddock Motorsport returns to a happy hunting ground this weekend, as the British GT Championship heads to Snetterton in Norfolk for its second, and final, sprint event of the season. Mark Smith and Martin Plowman will tackle two one-hour races on Sunday around the three-mile Snetterton 300 Circuit, a venue they have achieved a lot of success at in recent times. In fact, just last month American driver Smith dominated the GT Cup event at the venue, winning three of the four races solo aboard the team’s McLaren 720S GT3 Evo. While British GT is an entirely different competitive proposition, both the data and the confidence earned from that GT Cup event will be a boost for the team, which has shown top-five potential for the entirety of the campaign so far. Had it not been for damage blocking a cooling pipe and forcing an off-beat strategy in the previous three-hour race at Spa, Smith and Plowman could well have challenged for some big points in Belgium. This weekend the two one-hour thrashes pose a different challenge, with the shorter race duration leaving zero margin for error both on track and during a team’s mandatory pit stop and driver change. The twin-race format also gives each driver the chance to qualifying for, and start, a race, with Smith setting the grid slot for race one, and Plowman up against the fellow Pros at the start of race two. With the McLaren gaining in pace with every weekend, hopes are high that this weekend’s double header can yield a solid result for the team.

Mark Smith and Martin Plowman battled extreme temperatures at Spa-Francorchamps in their McLaren GT3 to score British GT points