Topcats Racing and Paddock Motorsport rain dance to Snetterton successes

Paddock Motorsport and Topcats Racing were the biggest winners of a weather-affected Saturday at Snetterton, as the GT Cup Championship began its third meeting of the 2025 season (7 June).

After a dry-wet-dry opening battle that ended with a Topcats Racing Lamborghini one-two, Mark Smith powered to an impressive Endurance race victory later in the afternoon for Paddock Motorsport. 

Qualifying

After a double pole position at Brands Hatch most recently, eyes were on the GT3 group and Mark Smith in the morning's Qualifying session. What followed was a stunning 2m04.787s effort in the wet by the Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo of Fraser Fenwick, who put his GTC group Topcats Racing entry on the outright pole ahead of the fastest GT3 of Darren Kell, with Smith following behind.

Paul Bailey christened his new Ferrari 296 Challenge weapon of choice with a GTO group pole (SB Race Engineering), while SVG Motorsport could celebrate a double pole for their Ginetta and BMW in GTH and GTA respectively.

Sprint Race

What followed in the afternoon was an epic opening 25-minute contest, largely dictated by the unpredictable weather conditions in Norfolk. Mother Nature took its first turn as cars negotiated the formation lap, several cars darting to the pits for wet tyres as rain pelted down.

It left pole man Fenwick heading the pack into the first bend but, one corner later at Wilson hairpin, the #23 Lamborghini skated wide under braking in tricky conditions on slick tyres, allowing the sister Topcats Racing machine of Jarrod Waberski to romp into the early lead.

Wet-shod Pirelli runners further back included Smith, the Brands Hatch treble race winner, and it was he who led the chargers. He swiftly carved up the slick runners before taking the lead at halfway from Waberski, but the transition in grip suddenly favoured the slicks moments later.

It left a three-car tussle unfolding at the Nelsons chicane with Waberski surviving a trip over the grass in his attack of Smith, before taking the lead back from the GT3 McLaren shortly afterwards. The win looked within sight, but a determined Fenwick was not to be denied as he swept alongside and past Waberski on the front straight to confirm a brilliant win alongside a one-two finish for the Topcats squad.

Smith soon fell into the clutches of his nearest GT3 rival, Peter Erceg, in the closing laps of the race. The latter soon caught his man, and swept by right at the death to confirm a fantastic group victory on the line for the PB Racing powered by JMH Automotive Audi R8 driver.

Simon Griffiths drove a fabulous solo effort in the Innovation Racing Ginetta on slick tyres to confirm his latest GTH group victory - his second Sprint success of the season and third triumph of 2025. On his return the GT Cup, series stalwart Richard Chamberlain marked it with a victory in GTO, after also gambling on slicks and it proved the correct decision in his fight with Bailey's new Ferrari. GTA was a lights-to-flag success for SVG Motorsport's Ian Astley in their BMW.

Endurance Race

After the drama of race one's weather, the longer 50-minute contest that followed was greeted by much kinder conditions. An all-Lamborghini front row was instantly intercepted by the leading GT3 rivals, whereafter Erceg powered his Audi up into the lead at Agostini hairpin on lap one.

He would soon have company from the man he battled with during the Sprint encounter. Smith brought the black and pink McLaren 720S up into second place from back in the latter edges of the top 10 initially, before bringing the gap to the leading Audi down to nothing within a handful of laps.

The move was soon completed without drama at the end of the back straight, giving Smith a lead which he would never surrender on his way towards collecting victory number five of his maiden GT Cup campaign alongside an extra dose of GT3 group success ahead of a chasing Erceg. Kell rounded out the group podium, in third overall for the #88 Track Focused McLaren 720s.

Despite a phenomenal effort by Will Tregurtha - sharing the #4 Triple M Lamborghini Huracan with Grahame Tilley - who was racing with a metal plate in his hand after suffering an injury recently, it would be a double delight for the Topcats Racing entry of Fenwick and Iain Campbell in GTC. The Caleys rounded out the group podium, having climbed to a brilliant second overall in the early laps with Bill behind the wheel of the Uber GT Performance Porsche.

GTH also enjoyed a double victor, thanks to the impressive Griffiths who topped off a perfect day for the #30 Innovation Racing Ginetta G56. Griffiths held off Archie Clark's Feathers Motorsport Aston Martin in the early stint before the latter found his way by, but mandatory pitstops - coupled with a penalty for the Aston Martin - gave the Ginetta man his route to a second Saturday win.

Heartbreak struck Chamberlain in GTO on this occasion. He charged up into the top three overall in his Porsche 935, but a mechanical issue forced him to retire in favour of the group-winning Ferrari of Bailey and David Brabham. Anthony Seddon Racing's Mack Priestwood and Lewis Tindall powered their Ginetta G55 up the order in GTA meanwhile to grab a group triumph of their own ahead of SVG Motorsport's BMW and Brent Millage (Ginetta G55).

#9 Peter Erceg

“Qualifying didn’t quite go as we wanted, we were a little disappointed to be sixth. But actually sixth was ideal for the Sprint Race because it gave me chance to have a look and see what everybody else was doing! We went on the alternatives, stayed out on slicks for a while, it was a little dodgy for a few laps but it came to us so really happy with the win on that. Second race, all hats off to Mark he was too fast for us today. But nice to have second and we were nursing a bit of a tyre problem towards the end so it was nice to have a gap and I was happy with that.I didn’t think it was going to rain that much, I’ve been around the UK enough to know what it looks like when it’s going to rain and it didn’t look like it was going to rain for too long! So for me, while on the outlap it was super-slippery, I thought it would come to us and that slicks were the right choice. The two Pro-Sporters in the Lamborghinis in front of me did the same so that reinforced my thinking.”

#4 Will Tregurtha

“It was about two months ago I did the very racing driver thing of breaking my hand when cycling, but I’m cleared to race and it’s fine - all good, and cycling for a while too so happy days. The car is just lovely, it’s so - I don’t know how to describe it - it’s just lovely, it’s so easy to sit on the limit and it’s really confidence-inspiring. I was really quite lucky with traffic which really helped me catch everyone up ahead.”

#58 Jarrod Waberski

“We went out and there was quite a big dark cloud that we all saw. Got to the grid and it started raining a lot on the formation lap so it was super slippery but I kind of knew from testing yesterday that this was going to blow over so it was just a matter of surviving in the beginning. I was quite confident that I was going to stay out on the slick, the pace was really good in the beginning - I wanted it to stay kind of greasy-wet the whole race because the pace was really good! We’re just struggling with a little bit of straight-line speed stuff, so once it dried out the race became a lot harder for us but nonetheless it was a good race for us, and a good race for the team. I was happy to get on the podium for Mark, we’ve had a lot of challenges with this car and a lot of bad luck so to be on the podium is a big thing.”

#30 Simon Griffiths

“We made that call in the first race to stay out on slicks. To be fair it would have been carnage on that first corner if all them cars hadn’t come in - my plan was to just hang back and let it all happen in front of me. But everyone came in and I thought ‘let’s just try it’. Regretted it in the first couple of laps and then the car kept coming and coming and coming. The second race I was being held up by a Lamborghini and I’ve never been in a race where you’re sort of looking at the front and looking at the rear with three in the rear! So entertaining to say the least.”