SMITH & PLOWMAN KEEP UP THE PRESSURE IN DRAMATIC OULTON PARK SPRINTS

Mark Smith & Martin Plowman were at the heart of the action during last weekend’s British GT Championship round at Oulton Park, twice challenging for a potential top-five result across two tricky Bank Holiday Sprints. The combination of a tightly packed field and constantly changing weather conditions made the twin hour-long races in Cheshire challenging, but Paddock’s #9 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo shared by Mark Smith and Martin Plowman was ever-present in the fight, with both drivers pushing for strong points across the two rounds. Although some bad luck denied them a score in the opener, a sound strategy and calm heads put the team well in the frame for the top five in the weather-afflicted second race, once again ramming home the progress Paddock has made towards becoming a consistent presence at the sharp end of one of the world’s toughest GT championships. With all of Saturday’s running taking place in dry conditions, the weather lottery for Monday would make much of the day a very different experience. Monday’s opening race would at least be dry, but would also bring frustration with a solid points finish being snatched away in the closing stages by a racing incident. Smith was pleased to qualifying the #9 seventh on the grid, dramatically lowering his best time from the same venue last year and being only 0.6s away from outright pole. A real display of the level of progression both driver and team are making this season. When the lights went out for the opening race on Monday, Smith got a decent start but was then bottled up in the pack as the cars ran through the pinch point that is Old Hall corner, clouds of dust being thrown up as some slid wide beyond the kerbing. The #9 emerged from the melee in eighth, behind the Bridger Motorsport Honda NSX. Try and he might, Smith could close up to the Honda through the corners but the sheer grunt of the car in a straight line made actually passing the Japanese machine a different matter. Smith continued to attack until the race was neutralised by a long full course yellow period prompted by a heavy accident for a GT4 car. Smith pitted under the caution to hand to Plowman, who rejoined once again staring at the rear wing of the Honda. The NSX’s defence delayed Plowman and allowed the Team Parker Racing Porsche driven by Sven Müller to close in and soon the three ran nose-to-tail. Knowing he had to make a move, Plowman attacked the NSX into the Hislops Chicane, just as the Porsche dived to the inside of both. Unable to turn into the corner without risking heavy damage, Plowman was forced to take to the escape road, with the lost time dropping the Paddock McLaren to 11th. That was the limit, but Plowman did set the second-fastest race lap of any McLaren on the grid, ramming home the potential of the Paddock setup. Race two would prove a different sort of challenge, with rapidly changing weather conditions making tyre strategy a complete gamble. Plowman took the start from 11th and opted to fit wet-weather Pirellis with the track still soaked following a shower before the start. However, within a few laps of the green flag the circuit was already close to the crossover points between slick and wet rubber, sparking a number of runners to make early pit stops to change tyres. However, with the weather looking increasingly unsettled on the radar, Paddock opted to keep Plowman out as long as possible, and sure enough the rain returned, vindicating the decision. Plowman steadily made his way up the order, eventually pulling a fine pass on the Beechdean Aston Martin to secure fifth by the time the pit window opened. With rain still in the air, the team made the sensible call of keeping the car on wets when Plowman relayed Smith for the run to the flag, prioritising the stability of a strong result over the gamble on what could become gripless slicks. Smith rejoined in fifth, but with the train of the Beechdean Aston, Spirit of Race Ferrari and Bridger Honda NSX, which had opted to a slicks, right behind. Further rain did not arrive, and when the Honda’s tyres switched on Smith was powerless to defend as he nursed his own overheating wets. The Optimum Motorsport McLaren driven my Morgan Tillbrook would also make its way past on dry tyres, but Smith defended superbly from the other cars in a similar situation, taking the flag a fine seventh with the Aston and Ferrari in his mirrors. The result means Paddock has now finished three of the year’s opening four British GT rounds inside the top eight overall, with Smith and Plowman running 11th in the GT3 Drivers’ Championship and the feeling that a breakthrough result for the pair may not be far away.Mark Smith said: “Overall I’d say this has been a really positive weekend for us. My big focus all season has been on improving my qualifying pace, and I did that by a lot this weekend, taking something like two seconds off my previous best lap here. I need to keep that trajectory going, and the team needs to keep making the improvements that we are because that’s how we’re going to get to the front in a championship this tight together. I’m happy with how I drove. Race one was tricky with a really crowded start and it was a shame to lose out on points in the end, but that’s racing sometimes! Race two was good fun, even if the car was becoming quite tough to drive as the wets overheated. Still, we got into the fight, got a solid result and are showing we’re making progress as a team the whole way.” Martin Plowman added: “The biggest positive this weekend is the way the entire team has worked and come together. It’s been a great effort from everybody in some challenging conditions, and I’m really happy to see the progress we’ve made. Qualifying alone shows how far Mark’s come this year. To knock over two seconds off his best lap is brilliant, and he raced very strongly in both outings. In race two, we could have taken a gamble on slicks, but we also risked losing it all and ending up in the wall had the rain returned. What we’re building here isn’t a team that can get a podium off a gamble or a freak result, we’re building a team that can fight for points and podiums in every round, and we 100% showed we’re on the right path to that this weekend. I’m already excited for Spa.”