PODIUM PACE GOES UNREWARDED FOR PADDOCK AMID SNETTERTON SETBACKS

Mark Smith & Martin Plowman endured a frustratingly fruitless weekend at Snetterton, despite the team producing arguably its strongest overall British GT Championship performance to date. The Paddock McLaren GT3 showed performance that on any other weekend would have carried them to the podium. However, through no fault of their own, the car suffered setbacks that meant the team received no reward for its hard work. Smith and 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 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 smith then slowed on track after only a couple of laps with a terminal gearbox failure – a legacy of the earlier impact with the barrier.  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. 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.