Inception Commits to Full IGTC Season with McLaren

Photo: Jules Benichou/21creation

Inception Racing has committed to the remainder of the Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli season with its McLaren 720S GT3 according to team manager Bas Leinders.

The Optimum Motorsport-operated team currently sits second in the IGTC Pro-Am standings following the season-opening TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa earlier this month which saw a four-driver squad of Ollie Millroy, Brendon Iribe, Kevin Madsen and Jordan Pepper.

Bronze-rated Madsen is expected to join team regulars Millroy and Iribe for both the Indianapolis 8 Hour and Kyalami 9 Hour.

“We plan to do [the full IGTC],” Leinders told Sportscar365.

“Myself, I’ve been to Joburg a few times. The track is amazing and now it’s changed a little bit since then because I was there in 2004-06. 

“Obviously Intercontinental GT is a bit less races [this year] but also that’s one of the reasons why we said we could enter this with the busy schedule that we already have and get the experience also for the future.

“It would be interesting to continue doing those races.”

While only two cars were registered to score Pro-Am points at Spa, that number is expected to increase in the remaining events, with SunEnergy1 Racing expected to be back for both Indy and Kyalami as well as others.

Leinders said they’ve yet to determine Inception’s 2022 effort but indicated it could be scaled back compared to its comprehensive program this year.

Iribe and Millroy have taken part in full seasons of International GT Open, Asian Le Mans Series, Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS, the opening three GTWC Europe Endurance Cup rounds plus an outing in the Intelligent Money British GT Championship and this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The program has been designed to get Oculus co-founder Iribe, who only started racing two years ago, up to speed in professional GT racing.

“We need to look at what we want to do next year,” Leinders said. “Obviously this year has been a lot and there’s still a lot to come. 

“I would say that it’s a little bit too much but at the same time this experience, especially for Brendan and these races are so valuable. He’s getting a speed course in how to race. 

“It’s a very good thing to have but I think for next year we need to find a bit of a compromise to do a little bit less races.

“I think we’re doing 27 or 28 races this year, so if we can dial it down to around 20 and maybe some more testing.

“Having this experience in races is so valuable.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John