Smith Bags Brands Hatch Brace For Paddock Motorsport

Paddock Motorsport added two more victories to their tally for the 2025 GT Cup Championship season as Mark Smith won both of Sunday's races (18 May), while Topcats Racing and Uber GT Performance claimed a big haul themselves.

Smith enjoyed a perfect day in Kent, adding to his Saturday Sprint success with victory in both races from the front of the field after securing pole position in the morning with his McLaren 720S GT3.

Elsewhere, Iain Campbell and Fraser Fenwick took both GTC wins for Topcats Racing, as did the Porsche pairing of James and Bill Caley for Uber GT Performance in GTB. GTA was shared between SVG Motorsport and Innovation Racing, the latter also bagging a GTH win after Feathers Motorsport earlier denied them the Group double. 

Qualifying

After grabbing pole position the previous day, Mark Smith was the man his rivals were aiming to beat. He was quick out of the blocks in the short, sharp, Qualifying session on Sunday morning, sealing the deal with a 1m24.058s lap for the double pole in Kent.

Peter Erceg was closest once again in the GT3 Group, the PB Motorsport powered by JMH Auto racer pipping Track Focused's Darren Kell in an Audi v McLaren fight.

Poles elsewhere went to Topcats Racing #23 (Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo) in GTC, SB Race Engineering in GTO with Paul Bailey (McLaren 720S), and Uber GT Performance for the second time also in GTB (Porsche 911). Feather Motorsport was quickest in GTH, while the SVG Motorsport BMW was on top in GTA.

Pitstop Race

A second 50-minute fight to the flag awaited competitors in the afternoon at Brands Hatch. Smith headed the field at the rolling start and proceeded to push hard in his opening stint, pulling the lead gap up to as high as 11 seconds before diving into the pits.

An unwanted additional tyre change prolonged his time in the pits, meaning he had to fight back from second spot behind Kell's similar McLaren. The Paddock Motorsport car closed in rapidly, and soon found its way by before Clearways and back into the race lead with just over 10 minutes on the clock.

It confirmed the result as Smith grabbed his third win of the season and the GT3 spoils, with Kell and Erceg following home in the same group. GTC went to the Topcats Racing duo of Fenwick and Campbell, with GTB again going to James and Bill Caley for Uber GT Performance. 

Two groups were decided right at the death meanwhile. Innovation Racing lost the lead of GTH after Tom Canning - sharing his #82 Aston Martin with Archie Clark - powered past the Ginetta G56 of Simon Griffiths and Hadley Simpson to gift Feathers Motorsport the group success.

Innovation Racing did have reason to celebrate, though, in Group GTA, as their sister #54 Ginetta G55 of Brent Millage dived inside the similar machine of Anthony Seddon Racing to clinch a superb win.

Sprint Race

From the head of the pack, Smith made the jump into Paddock Hill Bend to continue his run of form into the Sprint Race. The McLaren held its advantage and romped clear for a third victory at Brands Hatch.

Second place was contested between Kell and Erceg once more, the latter closing right in on his McLaren rival but unable to usurp Kell of the runner-up position with the pair getting grief from David Shaw in the G-Cat Racing Porsche.

GTC was dominated by the #23 Topcats Racing Lamborghini which doubled its win tally for the day, but behind them Grahame Tilley wrestled second in the group from Michael McInerney's Team Parker Racing Porsche in the Triple M Motorsport Huracan and ran out of laps to try and battle Topcats' Iain Campbell for the group spoils.

Innovation Racing avenged their Enduro defeat by beating Feathers Motorsport to seal joy for Hadley Simpson on their new Ginetta's debut weekend. GTB honours again went to the rampant Caleys, with GTA honours this time heading back in favour of the SVG Motorsport BMW of Neil Wallace.

#10 Mark Smith

“We've really got the car dialled in this weekend. Usually we're trying to figure out something, but the stability of the car this week has been spectacular - we could just immediately start attacking the track and dropping time, not trying to figure anything out with the car. The team has made great strides there. I seem to get right out the box and get moving, but the cars behind slowly build their pace. We changed tyres in the Pitstop race because we got a flat! Right before turn four the warning came on and they called me in so I was watching the pressure drop on the left rear. It's the worst tyre for this track because the back half is all high-speed rights so I couldn't load that tyre. By the time I got to the pits it was 0.15 bar and it was basically loose on the rim!"

#88 Darren Kell

“First time racing at Brands Hatch on the GP circuit and it was very exciting! Very challenging, very terrifying in places! It's a very interesting track, even moreso in a GT3 - only my second race in a GT3 car and first time at Brands so happy to be on the podium. Hopefully more to come as we get into the season. I did a test day here a while ago to try and learn the track but the day was full of red flags so I didn't actually get any laps in so really Saturday was about learning the GP circuit and today was trying to actually deploy that in the race. I think Mark Smith had the pace in the second half, I'd killed my tyres in the first half just because of the aero wash from the Audi and really I think if I'd been ahead of the Audi I might not have had problems with the tyres but it's one of those things, we live and learn and hopefully we can deploy better next time."

#95 Matt Eddolls

“We’re just finding our feet with the new Aston Martin, it was delivered last week and tested it on Wednesday. Had a few gremlins actually so it wasn’t the test we wanted and yeah we’ve just been getting used to it this weekend. It’s a good base, it’s a great car - it’s definitely got more time in it. Brands is actually a new circuit for me as well so it’s all been a learning experience. But we’re really glad with the result and looking forward to the next race.”

#54 Brent Millage

“It’s been amazing today. To get a win in the 50-minute race, I never expected that at my second meeting back after a four-year lay-off and to get second in the Sprint this afternoon was the icing on the cake really. Could have perhaps caught the other car in Group but the GTCs were in the way and there’s not a lot you can do with the power differential. It was very enjoyable, as I say that’s racing. This one was a little frustrating because of the GTC cars which have got the straight-line grunt but - dare I say it - are decidedly slower in the corners! So the real people I needed to be racing with were always split. But very enjoyable!”