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April 25, 2025
Paddock Motorsport heads into the biggest race of the British GT Championship season aiming to continue its push up the grid, with the three-hour Silverstone 500 presenting plenty of opportunity for progress. Mark Smith and Martin Plowman will once again be at the wheel of Paddock’s #9 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, and head into the second round of the season on a solid footing. Despite differential issues badly hampering the McLaren’s handling across the second half of the season-opener at Donington Park earlier this month, Smith and Plowman still battled to an eighth-place finish to bag some vital early championship points. With the car now fully refreshed and ready to run, both drivers have designs on improving on that result, even if this weekend will also provide what will perhaps be the sternest test of the entire season. The prestigious Silverstone 500 regularly draws in top-line crews for one-off appearances, boosting what is already a highly competitive regular-season GT3 field. This weekend will be no exception, with 21 cars competing in the headline GT3 category amid a 33-car entry. The very nature of the Silverstone race is a challenge in itself, with the three-hour endurance format providing much more strategic freedom for teams to find the fastest way to the chequered flag. The usual set pit windows are gone, so each crew is instead free to stop whenever they wish, with the caveat that each team must make three mandatory pit visits and driver changes, and no single driver can be in the car for more than 100 minutes. Therefore, being reactive to situations, managing both drive time and fuel levels, as well as being just plain quick, makes the recipe for success more complex than usual. Regardless the team enjoyed a productive day of testing at the Northamptonshire track last week and goes into the race weekend confident of getting into the fight.
By Martin Plowman April 17, 2025
Paddock Motorsport is looking to hire #1 Mechanics on either a Freelance/Full-time basis. We are gearing up for an expanded British GT programme in 2024 and beyond and are looking to add wealth of experience to our existing crew. We are looking for a Freelance #1 mechanic for all race events plus an agreed number of days in the workshop pre/post event. There is a potential for a full-time position for the right candidate.
April 7, 2025
Paddock Motorsport put in a fighting performance during the British GT Championship season-opener at Donington Park last weekend, with Mark Smith and Martin Plowman defying a worsening mechanical issue to secure a decent haul of points. A deteriorating differential across the final half of the two-hour race, allied to being boxed-in during their pit stop limited what could have been a top-six performance for the crew. However, Paddock’s #9 McLaren still showed bags of potential across the event, which puts the team in a strong position going forward. With the entire Donington weekend taking place under glorious spring sunshine, Paddock set about honing the 720S GT3 Evo’s setup to the 2.5-mile Grand Prix circuit. After racking up some useful mileage during Practice, there was a setback when Smith slipped into the gravel during Pre-Qualifying picking up some splitter and floor damage that would need to be repaired. Despite the lost running, the team went into Qualifying in confident mood, with Smith putting in a great effort during his run to slot the McLaren into seventh overall. Plowman then backed up the hard work to ensure Paddock would start Sunday’s race from ninth overall. In fact, the margins were so fine that one extra tenth would have put the crew sixth in the grid instead. Smith took the wheel for the start and immediately looked to make progress. However, his Pirelli tyres took longer than expected to find their bite, leaving him embroiled in a thrilling four-car duel with the #3 Optimum McLaren, #66 Team Parker Racing Porsche and #1 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini. Despite briefly dropping to the tail of this pack, Smith put on a great show as he gradually worked his way back through as the McLaren came into its performance window. A brave pass on the Optimum McLaren – which included some door banging and Smith running with two wheels on the grass at one point – was a real highlight. Having gained back the positions, Smith settled into seventh right before the race was neutralised to clear a Lotus that had been shoved into the gravel. The resulting safety car bunched the pack and put Smith on the tail of the Team Abba Mercedes when the pit window opened and he dived in to hand to Plowman. This was where the first misfortune struck as the Paddock McLaren was blocked in the tight pit lane, with the resulting delay to work the car free costing the crew around 24 seconds. Plowman rejoined in ninth and had just got up to speed when the car’s handling began to suffer due to a suspected differential issue. Despite the issues, Plowman soldiered on and successfully held off the #3 McLaren to take the flag in position. However, the team was elevated a further place following the exclusion of the #67 McLaren for a parc ferme infringement, leaving Smith and Plowman firmly in the points-paying places in eighth overall and seventh of the Pro-Am runners. Mark Smith said: “It’s a bit of a disappointing result because we definitely could have had more. We felt we had a quick car, but for the first few laps I didn’t have much grip so perhaps we went out with pressures that were a little optimistic. That put me into the pack and cost me a few spots and then I had to make my way back through, which was fun but a lot of effort. A few drivers really had their elbows out, but I was determined to make the moves count. Things were looking good until I started to feel the diff toward the end of my stint, and then we got delayed in our pit and lost a chunk of time. I know the problem then held Martin back quite badly, so we’ll investigate that and get back at it for Silverstone.” Martin Plowman said: “As season-openers go, it wasn’t the smoothest for us, but we have a lot of positives to take from it. Mark drove brilliantly during his opening stint and pulled off some excellent passing moves, which shows he’s full of confidence, and the entire technical team worked really well all weekend. The race was looking positive for us before the pit delay, and then when I got into the car the rear was gradually getting looser and looser, so I was hanging on to an extent. Considering that, to come away with some decent points is always a plus. We’ll get back to base, strip the differential and gearbox down and come back fighting at Silverstone at the end of the month.” Paddock Motorsport is next in action for the biggest race of the British GT season, the Silverstone 500, across the weekend of April 25-27.
Paddock Motorsport's McLaren GT3 in the pit lane
April 4, 2025
Paddock Motorsport will commence its fifth British GT Championship campaign at Donington Park this weekend, with the team carrying winning momentum into the opening race of the season. Mark Smith and Martin Plowman will again share the team’s #9 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo this year and enter their third full campaign together arguably better prepared than ever before thanks to some impressive pre-season performances. Just last weekend American driver Smith excelled during the GT Cup race weekend, which was also held at the Derbyshire circuit. After securing two podium finishes from the twin sprint races on Saturday, Smith then celebrated his breakthrough GT3 victory after an epic performance driving solo in the 100-minute endurance event. Smith outran a tightly-packed field that included many British GT regulars, and even defied splitter damage to eventually hold off the rival Track Focused McLaren by 0.024s in a nail-biting finish. It was a standout performance from Smith, who this year has made a point of conducting additional testing and gaining extra race mileage with the aim of breaking into the podium places in British GT. The landmark result shows that he will go into the opening two-hour race of the year fully up to speed and ready to fight for a top result in the UK’s premier sportscar series. Likewise, Plowman played a major role in aiding Smith’s success via his coaching and team management role. Plus, Paddock can now call on the experience and knowledge of top GT3 race engineer Toby Phillips, who has formerly worked on factory programmes with Lamborghini and Bentley and counts multiple success in both British and European GT3 racing on his impressive CV. The team has also taken in successful tests in both Portugal and the UK over the off-season and has been able to further refine the setup and performance of the McLaren GT3. With both Smith and Plowman well dialled into the McLaren well before the first official British GT session even begins, hopes are high that the team can continue its push to the front.
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Paddock Motorsport is more than just a race team. We are an events business; offering world-class VIP Hospitality at major sporting events and really cool corporate experiences under the banner of Paddock Prestige Events.

 

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