Tough Weekend for Smith & Plowman at Snetterton
The Paddock Motorsport GT3 Crew of Mark Smith & Martin Plowman returned from the European event at Spa-Francorchamps hoping for a result to reflect their pace with two Snetterton sprint races to sink their teeth into. Rain threatened during both Saturday morning practice sessions, but a dry track greeted the drivers for Qualifying in the afternoon.Smith was first up in the 720S and set a time good enough for sixth in GT3 Pro-Am for race one, Plowman backing that up with ninth on his run for race two.
Race one on Sunday did not start as planned for the Smith, after he suffered a minor spin on cold tyres following a three-wide squeeze at the Wilson hairpin. Left with work to do, the McLaren crew fought their way from the back of the pack up onto the fringes of the top 10 to claim eighth place in class by the finish. A frenetic second race again proved a mixed bag for the pair with the #9 McLaren 720s GT3 Evo set for it season best finish only to be hit from behind in the closing stages of the race causing a spin. Smith recovered and crossed the line in 9th overall and P7 in class.
Mark Smith “We were fighting oversteer in the car this weekend, as there wasn’t much grip out there. We struggled to get the car into the right window really, and made some major changes that gave us some oversteer in Qualifying. Our race pace was much better though. We were a bit twitchy with low grip at the first corner in race one, and maybe I should have been more cautious as that needed to be managed. Our team’s pace is right around fifth in race trim, so Donington’s a track we know well and have a set-up that we’re happy with, so we should be able to be competitive there.” The Paddock Motorsport crew will now return to Donington Park for the penultimate event of the British GT campaign, in a two-hour race held across 7/8 September.

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