Podium pace goes unrewarded for Paddock amid Snetterton setbacks

August 17, 2026

Paddock Motorsport endured a frustratingly fruitless weekend at Snetterton, despite the team producing arguably its strongest overall British GT Championship performance to date.
 
Both Paddock’s McLaren GT3 and Artura GT4 crews showed performance that on any other weekend would have carried them to the podium. However, through no fault of their own, both cars suffered setbacks that meant the team received no reward for its hard work.
 
Mark Smith and Martin Plowman were fighting for what would have been their breakthrough overall British GT3 podium in Sunday’s opening race, with Smith having just taken third spot overall on track when the #9 McLaren was taken out, clattering the barriers and leaving the result in ruins. Even though the team worked wonders to repair the resulting steering, suspension, bodywork and toe-link damage – plus fully reset the car’s geometry – in time for Plowman to take the start of Race 2, a gearbox failure directly traced back to the earlier damage prevented them from even salvaging some points from the event.
 
The bad luck wasn’t restricted to the GT3 side of the garage either, with Revie Lake and Blake Angliss twice losing a shot at a strong result to freak issues. Lake had qualified the #84 Artura third for Sunday’s opener and looked set to challenge for a trophy, but the car’s race was ended after just two corners when Lake was harpooned by and out-of-control Ginetta heading into Wilson hairpin.
 
Again, the team did well to repair the damage, allowing Angliss to start from ninth in the finale, but his charge was halted by an early puncture that cost an additional pit stop to repair. The sole silver lining was a fourth place in GT4 Silver, but it was a tale of what could have been.

The weekend had started brightly, with Paddock’s GT3 firmly establishing itself as one to watch across practice, highlighted by Plowman going third-fastest overall during FP2. That momentum carried across to Saturday’s Qualifying, with Smith producing his best-ever British GT result, scorching to fourth on the grid for the opening race before Plowman backed that up by securing sixth for the finale.
 
Hopes were high come Sunday, and again Smith showed his strengths at Snetterton during an impressive opening stint. After surviving a close shave with a spinning Lamborghini entering Brundle, Smith established the #9 in fourth but was clearly faster than the #77 Optimum car ahead, climbing all over its rear bumper in an effort to get past. This created a three-car fight with the Orange JMH 720S also getting involved behind. Smith handled the balance of attack v defence well and eventually dived for a gap to pass the #77 for a provisional podium place out of Nelson corner, but as soon as he nosed ahead a hit on his left-rear sent the car spinning into the barriers.
 
Down but not out, the #9 was repaired and ready to take the start of the final race just a few hours later. Plowman settled into seventh, with overtaking around the three-mile track proving difficult in the tight Pro driver field. He handed to Smith and a clean stop got the car back out and ready to push forward, but before the American driver got a chance a bang from the rear of the car signalled a terminal gearbox failure – a legacy of the earlier impact with the barrier.
 
Likewise, Lake and Agliss deserved more for their efforts. An impressive fourth fastest in each of the practice sessions, Lake then narrowly lost out on Race 1 pole in a three-way fight. A strong start from third had him duelling for second before the Toro Verde Ginetta misjudged its braking into Turn 2 and clattered into the side of the Artura just as Lake turned into the hairpin, causing terminal damage. Angliss was just starting to make progress up the order in Race 2 when a front-left puncture struck, consigning him back to the pits and effectively putting the car a lap down.
 
Paddock may not have left Snetterton with the results it deserved, but the team did show the performance that will surely continue to put the cars in strong positions across the remainder of the season.

Mark Smith said: “It’s just been one of those weekends. Hugely disappointing after the pace we showed on Saturday, but what can you do? In Race 1 I was pushing really hard to get by the Optimum car because I could see the podium spots, but as soon as I did I got the hit and that was that. The gearbox in Race 2 was a direct result of that. I came out of Coram and it sounded like somebody had hit the back of a car with a sledgehammer and then I lost drive. There was nothing we could have done. It’s a shame, but overall we made a big step this weekend. We had a fast car that we could fight with and we raced well when we got the chance to. The results were out of our hands, but there’s no hiding that the team did a great job this weekend.”
 
Martin Plowman said: “We have to chalk this one up as a ‘good’ bad weekend. The team was flawless throughout and the car rolled off the truck very strong. Both Mark and I were consistently in the top six in every session thanks in large to the work back at base by the engineers and crew. The double DNF was a tough pill to swallow, especially as we were cruelly taken out of podium contention through no fault of our own, and then suffered a rare mechanical failure linked to the crash. It’s doubly difficult when the GT4 crew had similar problems when they too had been driving very well and showed the sort of performance that ordinarily brings you strong results. All we can do is take the positives from our performance and the lessons learnt and evaluate where we go from here.”
 
Paddock Motorsport returns to British GT action for the penultimate round of the season at Donington Park in a few weeks, with the two-hour race held over the weekend of September 5/6.

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Snetterton sprints set to kick-start second half of British GT season

August 14, 2026
Paddock Motorsport will resume its charge for British GT Championship silverware at Snetterton this weekend, with the return of the series’ sprint format giving double the chance to impress.  After a two-month break since the last event at Spa-Francorchamps, Mark Smith and Martin Plowman will reunite aboard the #9 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, while Paddock will also continue the operation of the ex-Mahiki Racing McLaren Artura GT4 shared by Revie Lake and Blake Angliss. The return to action in Norfolk marks the second and final sprint event of the season, where the usual standalone race is replaced by two flat-out 60-minute sprints. Traditionally, these have been the races that Smith and Plowman have excelled in, with the pair scoring their strongest British GT result yet in the last sprint round at Oulton Park, finishing fourth overall and securing a place on the GT3 Pro-Am podium for the first time. Unlike the longer solo races, each driver gets a chance to qualify for, and finish, one of the sprints. Smith will qualify the GT3 for Race 1 and take the wheel for the start, before Plowman sets the grid slot for Race 2 before handing to Smith for the run to the flag. With minimal strategy involved, sheer speed is first and foremost, with Paddock’s McLaren faring well in the timesheets so far this year. With its prime race engine restored ahead of the last round at Spa, the car’s pace was masked by the sheer traffic of the 55-car combined grid as British GT mixed with the French GT Championship and Alpine Cup. The pair banked solid points for eighth place overall in what became a race of survival – maintaining fifth in the GT3 Pro-Am points as a result. With a more manageable 24 cars expected around Snetterton’s 300 Circuit this weekend there will be plenty of extra space to attack. The three-mile Norfolk venue is second only to Spa in terms of the longest lap of the British GT season, and it’s a track Smith in particular has excelled at. The American driver celebrated three outright wins from four GT Cup races there last season, while he and Plowman also scored an impressive fifth place during last season’s British GT meeting. Hopes are high the duo can continue to build on that sort of form this weekend. Likewise, Lake and Angliss have also shown great promise since switching to run under the Paddock banner. Despite their move coming just before the last round in Belgium, the pair qualified on the front row in GT4 and were leading the race before a gearbox gremlin denied them. With the technical team enjoying additional time to service and re-prepare the Artura, the duo should be ones to watch in the GT4 hunt.

Podiums aplenty for Paddock in McLaren Trophy Europe scorcher at Misano

July 22, 2026
Paddock Motorsport added yet more silverware to its ever-growing McLaren Trophy Europe collection after another stellar performance at Misano last weekend, with Mark Smith scoring the team’s first class victory of the season while Luca Magnussen and Callum Davies continued to prove their Pro class title credentials. Away from his British GT duties with the team, American driver Smith made an instant impact on his Trophy debut in the third of Paddock Motorsport’s McLaren Arturas in Italy, grabbing an Am class triumph in the opening race. That contributed to a total of five podium finishes out of a possible six across the weekend for the team. One of those came in the Pro class, where Magnussen and Davies battled to their fourth outright podium of the season, a result that keeps the duo out front in the championship points. After impressive results at both Monza and Spa-Francorchamps, the squad travelled back to Italy for two races held in intense summer heat at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. Magnussen and Davies were reunited in the #23 Pro class Artura alongside Matthew Higgins and David Coelho in the #50 Pro-Am car and Smith’s Am entry.

5, 3, 2, 1... Paddock secures stunning McLaren Trophy haul at Spa

June 29, 2026
Paddock Motorsport beat the heat to claim five podium finishes across its three cars in two scorching McLaren Trophy Europe races at Spa-Francorchamps, earning one Team of the Weekend award in the process. The stunning haul of a total 11 pieces of silverware was split across the trio of Luca Magnussen and Callum Davies’ Pro class Artura Trophy Evo and the Pro-Am entries shared by David Coelho/Matthew Higgins and Maximilian Tarillion/Kevin Rohrscheidt. All three Paddock crews appeared on the podium at least once, with Magnussen and Davies claiming a pair of third places – the second taken after a stunning charge from the back of the grid – Tarillion and Rohrscheidt taking a third and second, and Coelho and Higgins scoring their breakthrough podium with second place in Race 1.

Paddock claims points across an ultra-demanding British GT race at Spa

June 24, 2026
Paddock Motorsport emerged from what was perhaps the most demanding British GT Championship race ever with a solid haul of points, with Mark Smith and Martin Plowman securing an eighth-place finish at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend. With the British GT field combined with cars from the French GT Championship and European Alpine Cup, a 55-car ‘mega grid’ would compete across two hours in the Ardennes, however the addition of so many GT4 and production-spec machines made the weekend a minefield of traffic of the GT3 runners. In many ways, ideal car setup mattered less here than anywhere, with traffic management and sheer fortune being more valuable in generating laptime. Smith and Plowman emerged second-fastest overall during second practice, but the #9 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo would have to serve a grid drop regardless following an incident at Oulton Park. That meant Smith took the wheel from 11th for the start on Sunday afternoon. The baking heat of Spa added an extra dimension, making the race a huge challenge both inside the car and out.

Paddock poised for a boost as British GT heads to Spa

June 19, 2026
Paddock Motorsport continues its British GT Championship campaign at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps this weekend, with the team keen to push on from its breakthrough podium finish last time out. Mark Smith and Martin Plowman head to the third round of the season full of confidence after securing their first British GT3 podium finish as a driver pairing in the last outing at Oulton Park, a result that has been long in the making and elevates them to fourth place in the GT3 Pro-Am standings. That result was also taken against the backdrop of the team having to run its spare engine in the #9 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, with Oulton’s tight and twisty nature helping to mask any power deficit. However, for Spa Paddock’s prime unit has been freshly rebuilt, and will undoubtedly be a key addition given the power-hungry nature of the Belgian Grand Prix track. Spa represents the longest lap of the year, at 4.3miles, with GT3s nudging 165mph along the Kemmel Straight after the near-flat-out run up Eau Rouge/Raidillon, which pushes cars and drivers to their limits.  This event also features a different sort of challenge with the British GT grid combined with that of the French GT Championship and Alpine Cup to create a monster 60-car field. As French GT only caters for GT4-spec machinery, the GT3 field will effectively have three times the amount of traffic than usual to navigate across the two-hour race. This will place the emphasis on clean and consistent racing, something which Paddock should excel at given Smith and Plowman have scored class points in each of the last nine British GT races, a run stretching back to Oulton Park last year.

Paddock pockets podiums in superb McLaren Trophy Europe opener

June 1, 2026
Paddock Motorsport began its 2026 McLaren Trophy Europe campaign in electric fashion with two podium finishes at Monza last weekend, where Callum Davies and Luca Magnussen clinched a superb second place overall on their series debut. The latter’s achievement came against the odds in the first of two intense races at the Italian circuit, as a fast-starting Davies climbed from seventh to third early on, before sportscar rookie Magnussen further improved to launch Paddock’s assault in style. Steven Lake and Maximilian Tarillion added a Pro-Am trophy to the collection, with third in class the following day, while David Coelho and Matthew Higgins banked solid points in their own Pro-Am entry. The squad travelled to the famous Temple of Speed with its biggest ever McLaren Trophy entry, the trio led by the #23 pairing of Magnussen and Davies in the Pro class, alongside two Pro-Am Arturas for the respective combinations of Lake/Tarillion and Higgins/Coelho.

Paddock completes its McLaren Trophy hat-trick

May 27, 2026
Paddock Motorsport will field its biggest-ever McLaren Trophy Europe entry this season after confirming a third Artura Trophy Evo for the full 2026 campaign. The new entry will be led by Pro driver Maximilian Tarillion, who will share the car across the course of the season with both Steven Lake and Kevin Rohrscheidt. Lake will join the team for the season opener at Monza, before Rohrscheidt makes his return to the McLaren Trophy Europe grid for both Spa-Francorchamps and Barcelona. Competing in the Pro-Am class, this car joins the already confirmed Pro crew of Luca Magnussen and Callum Davies, plus the Pro-Am entry of David Coelho and Matthew Higgins to form Paddock’s biggest-ever European programme. Austrian driver Tarillion is no stranger to GT4 machinery. Having graduated from a glittering karting career that included Austrian, German and European titles, he competed in the BMW M2 Cup Germany in 2023 after landing a spot on the grid by winning a BMW talent search programme. He then made his ADAC GT4 Germany and GT4 European Series debuts in 2024. Last year he completed a limited campaign in German GT4, while working as a professional karting coach. Rohrscheidt was a standout entry in last year’s McLaren Trophy Europe, claiming five Am class victories in a row from the six outings he contested alongside Andreas Greiling and Jens Richter in an MS Racing Team-run Artura. Prior to that, he raced successfully in Prototype Cup Germany, building valuable experience in Le Mans prototype machinery. Rohrscheidt is also a formidable sim racer and was a finalist in the 2013 Nissan GT Academy Germany competition. Lake has built significant GT racing experience across recent seasons having competed in both the UK and Europe. He began his driving career in Radicals and then progressed through the Mini Challenge before founding the Mahiki Racing team that has competed in both British GT and the GT4 European Series. He became a GT4 podium finisher last year and this year has stepped up to British GT’s top tier with a McLaren 720S GT3 Evo. Across the three entries, Paddock boasts a driving team full of quality, with the squad aiming for success across multiple classes as it bids to build on the 2025 Am championship achieved during its maiden McLaren Trophy Europe campaign.

Paddock beats the heat for sensational breakthrough British GT podium

May 26, 2026
Paddock Motorsport emerged from a scorching Bank Holiday British GT weekend at Oulton Park with both a breakthrough podium finish, and a best-ever result for Mark Smith and Martin Plowman. Fourth overall in the opening race stood as a huge achievement for the entire Paddock team, which was made even sweeter with one of the cars ahead running in a different class, meaning Smith and Plowman could stand on the GT3 Pro-Am podium for the first time together in what is their fourth full season as a pairing. The weekend itself presented a host of challenges, not least the 30+ degree heat on race day and the fact the team’s McLaren 720S GT3 Evo was still fighting against a lack of outright grunt due to running its backup engine while the prime unit is being rebuilt. The power deficit was highlighted in qualifying, with Smith and Plowman barely featuring in the speed trap figures. However fine laps from both netted two promising grid slots for Monday’s races, with Smith taking the start for the opener from seventh. Come Monday the mercury climbed, with track temperatures reaching 38 degrees by the time the lights went out for the first race. Smith got a good launch to hold the inside line into Old Hall and then survived being on the inside of a three-car pinch that resulted in light contact and Smith having to avoid the spinning Optimum McLaren that was pincered in the middle. Despite this, Smith filtered through the chaos in fifth, with the American driver chasing down the Barwell Lamborghini driven by multiple race-winner Alex Martin. Knowing the car ahead would need to serve extra time during its pit stop courtesy of a strong result in the last race at Silverstone, Smith didn’t need to attack and instead kept the Huracan well in sight before pitting for Plowman, who leapfrogged ahead during the stops. Rejoining fourth, Plowman had his mirrors full of the Lambo, now driven by Jarrod Waberski. The upside of the high temperature was it also limited others’ straight-line speed, giving Paddock a better platform to fight with. Plowman held firm despite a late safety car reducing the race to a 12-minute sprint, taking the flag fourth overall and third in class, sparking huge celebrations in the garage. Race two proved tougher, with a cocktail of even higher temperatures, a safety car start denying any early overtaking opportunities and eventually a collision. Plowman started from 10th but despite the limited passing opportunities of the 40-degree track managed to work his way through to ninth before pitting. A clean swap got Smith out in position and on the tail of the Rodin Ferrari ahead, but a clash in the braking zone for the chicane delayed both cars and consigned the Paddock McLaren back to the pits with damage. Even if the finale proved short, there can be no taking the shine off what was otherwise an incredibly strong event for the entire Paddock team.

Oulton awaits as Paddock looks for a British GT bounce back

May 22, 2026
Paddock Motorsport will look to continue its British GT Championship scoring streak at Oulton Park this weekend, heading into the first double-header event of the year with a refreshed McLaren. Two single-hour sprint races await Mark Smith and Martin Plowman across Bank Holiday Monday at the Cheshire track as British GT makes its annual visit to the north for what is always a seasonal highlight. Oulton’s tight and twisty 2.69-mile layout places an emphasis on skill, balance and bravery over outright power. The track features little margin for error and several blind corners that demand a driver fully leans on and trusts the car underneath them. British GT competition at Oulton Park is fierce, with fractions of a second often separating the entire GT3 field, and this weekend’s event promises to be no different with an XX-car entry packed with quality. During the last event at Silverstone Paddock’s McLaren 720S GT3 Evo emerged for a challenging weekend firmly inside the points. A turbo issue hampered qualifying before a lack of straight-line speed in the race also proved a hurdle. However, the team called the race brilliantly, coming home fifth in the GT3 Pro-Am order to kick-start the season with a strong points haul. Since then Paddock’s engineers have completely revised the McLaren, and the car that arrives at round two this weekend promises to be very different beneath the bodywork. The team feels it has found a balance between stability and raw speed, which was backed up by some promising testing results recently. While nobody knows where they truly lie in the pecking order until qualifying on Saturday, Smith and Plowman are confident of getting into the fight this weekend.

Consistency pays for Paddock across challenging British GT season opener

April 27, 2026
Mark Smith and Martin Plowman beat the odds to bank a healthy points score across the opening race of the British GT season at Silverstone last weekend, with the Paddock Motorsport team overcoming a string of challenges to make the result possible. An overnight turbo change was required to get the #9 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo race-ready for Sunday and, despite an ongoing battle to get the car back into its optimal performance window, Smith and Plowman fought their way from the back of the grid to finish ninth overall and an impressive fifth in the GT3 Pro-Am category. The showpiece three-hour Silverstone 500 weekend began with the team adapting the McLaren's setup to the 3.6-mile track's fast sweeps. Despite strong pace in pre-season testing, a change of conditions on the day made this more difficult, forcing the Paddock engineers to revise a host of settings to try and restore a solid handling balance. While they succeeded, a different issue hamstrung the team’s qualifying efforts when a turbo cracked and required a full replacement.