Paddock perfection as Smith secures Snetterton Sunday double

Paddock Motorsport celebrated a brace of GT Cup Championship victories on Sunday afternoon at Snetterton (8 June), while Feathers Motorsport and Innovation Racing shared the spoils in an enthralling GTH group battle.

Alongside Mark Smith's double win in the Paddock Motorsport GT3 McLaren 720s, Topcats Racing did a GTC double, as did SVG Motorsport in GTA.

Qualifying

After a rain-impacted opening day in East Anglia, the return of blue skies and sunshine was a welcome sight for the field as Pirelli slicks were bolted on and teams went out to battle. 

Taking full advantage was yesterday's Endurance Race winner Mark Smith who got behind the wheel of the pink-and-black McLaren 720S GT3 and squeezed out every drop of performance it had to offer. His 1m49.057sec bested Saturday pole-sitter Darren Kell by 0.397sec to take overall and the GT3 pole. 

The fight for the top in GTC was decided on the final lap of the session as Fraser Fenwick beat team-mate Jack Gadd's early effort as the chequered flag fell to add another top spot in his Topcats Racing Lamborghini Super Trofeo. 

There was a back-and-forth fight in GTH as Innovation Racing's Simon Griffiths and Feathers Motorsport's Archie Clark were seemingly attached by an invisible rope such was their closeness around the Snetterton Circuit. Trading purple sectors, it was Griffiths who ultimately triumphed in his Ginetta G56. SVG Motorsport took the honours in GTA, while Paul Bailey notched up GTO pole in his Ferrari 296 Challenge.

Endurance Race

Come the Endurance Race, Smith launched his Paddock McLaren from pole position into a comfortable lead. Building a commanding advantage, he was helped as fellow McLaren racer Darren Kell was fending off the attentions of PB Racing's Peter Erceg. Braking later into the sweeping first turn, Erceg squeezed his nose up the inside of the Track Focused 720S and into second. 

Come the stops, success penalties put the New Zealander back down to third but he had a secret weapon in his corner - Marcus Clutton. The pro got behind the wheel of the PB Racing with JMH R8 and set the timing screens alight, quickly reeling in and passing Kell but running out of time to trouble Smith's second win of the weekend.

GTC honours went the way of Topcats Racing's Iain Campbell & Fraser Fenwick, the pair putting in a faultless performance in their Lamborghini to take the win ahead of Grahame Tilley & Will Tregurtha - the former holding off early pressure from Jake Gadd in the opening stint.

SVG Motorsport claimed the spoils in GTH, with Aston Martins taking the two podium positions behind - Oselli Motorsport's newer Vantage prevailing over Feathers' previous generation example. Ian Astley's lightning final stint gave SVG a double as Astley and Neil Wallace pipped Anthony Seddon Racing for GTA honours. Paul Bailey & David Brabham rounded out the winners with GTO glory.  

Sprint Race

The weekend's final race got off to an interrupted start as an innocent spin for Bill Caley heading out of turn one left the field scattering and a number of cars were unlucky to pick up damage taking avoiding action. 

Combined with a mechanical issue for Jack Gadd's Lamborghini, and a safety car was needed to recover cars back to the paddock. Once the race got going again, Smith was getting pressure from Kell but as the former's tyres got back up to temperature which allowed him to stretch away and confirm a second overall victory of the day, with Kell and Erceg in tow.

Evading the carnage at Allard in GTC, Iain Campbell was able to come away with the group triumph for Topcats Racing once again on a superlative weekend for the #23 Lamborghini crew.

Despite Griffiths' best efforts to usurp the Aston Martin of Feathers Motorsport, it would be Clark that prevailed in an epic scrap between himself and the Ginetta in GTH. SVG Motorsport doubled their win tally for the day meanwhile in GTA, with Wallace the hero in the Sprint.