It was a tale of what could have been for Paddock Motorsport in round seven of the Intelligent Money British GT Championship at Portimão last weekend (22/23 July), with the team denied strong finishes by a collision and mechanical misfortune despite a mighty effort in the Algarve.
 
While technical dramas stymied Kavi Jundu and Tom Rawlings’ GT4 challenge in Portugal, Martin Plowman and Mark Smith impressed aboard their McLaren 720S GT3 Evo for much of a chaotic three-hour Sunday slog. Despite being well in the fight, they saw a certain top-six finish fall out of their hands after being forced to make an extra stop to repair a damaged wheel, which dropped them back to ninth in class.
 
After luck deserted the team at both Donington and Snetterton, the vacation from the UK was a chance to revitalise Paddock’s challenge in both GT3 and GT4 at the picturesque Portimão circuit in the Algarve. Testing began without a hitch for both the team’s McLarens, with the GT4 Artura in particular looking a threat for potential silverware on initial pace.
 
While Plowman and Smith made solid gains against the ultra-competitive GT3 field during two hour-long free practice sessions, gearbox issues began to hobble the team’s Artura – ultimately putting Kavi Jundu and Tom Rawlings out of their GT4 qualifying sessions on Saturday afternoon. A spare car was sourced from the Elite Motorsport team, and Paddock’s engineers toiled for five hours to strip the parts and complete a full gearbox swap to get the car back on the grid.
 
The GT3 pairing pushed hard in their two 10-minute qualifying bursts, American driver Smith ran first and lapped just over a second off the ultimate best, before the experienced Plowman wrung the neck of the McLaren to go just 0.9s from the fastest time overall, putting the #11 car a combined 10th in the Pro-Am class for Sunday’s three-hour endurance contest.
 
A brave start from Smith took him forward four places thanks to a fantastic dive around the outside of several GT3 rivals in the opening three corners, and the team was instantly challenged on strategy when an early safety car period brought smith in for the first driver change after only 10 minutes.
 
Unfortunately, a second – and much longer – safety car period was instigated by the GT4 Artura which, having climbed up to an excellent fourth in class from the back of the field during the early laps, came to a halt with flames licking from its engine bay after an exhaust issue. It was a heartbreaking way for the car to finish its weekend, denying Jundu and Rawlings the chance to fight.
 
Smith climbed back aboard the #11 car in GT3 and when the race got back underway, he was well in the fight during a dramatic second hour. Smith fought his way up to fifth, before the team’s strategy was spoiled when Smith attempted to pass the Drivetac Mercedes but was sideswiped while doing so, with the contact breaking the left-rear wheel. Smith had to crawl back to the pits to switch with Plowman, but the repairs meant the team would serve four pit stops rather than the scheduled three.
 
A third safety car helped Plowman back to seventh, and he’d then make it sixth after a fine pass on Chris Froggatt’s McLaren at the Torre Vip hairpin. However, a final stop for fuel in the final 25 minutes was still required. Smith returned to the wheel to bring the car home, taking an unrepresentative ninth in Pro-Am at the end of three hours of hard racing. It did at least keep up Smith and Plowman’s record of scoring GT3 Pro-Am points in every race so far this year.
 
Paddock did take home one trophy from Portimão though, having been named British GT’s Team of the Weekend after its heroic efforts to get the GT4 back on track.