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.

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.

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.