Inception McLaren Squad Set for Full Season in GTD

Inception Racing is set to embark on its first full season in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD class this year with a single McLaren 720S GT3.

The Optimum Motorsport-run operation has announced a driver lineup for its Rolex 24 at Daytona debut and indicated plans to complete the full 12-round campaign.

Jordan Pepper, Frederik Schandorff, Ollie Millroy and Bronze-rated driver Brendan Iribe will form the driving squad for the Daytona curtain-raiser in three weeks’ time.

Millroy and Iribe are expected to be the full-season pairing while the extra driver for the three Michelin Endurance Cup races after Daytona has not been identified.

Millroy and Iribe have been the core duo for the Inception Racing setup, which entered a range of GT competitions last year including the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa, International GT Open, Motul Petit Le Mans, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and SRO America.

Reigning Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS champion Pepper represented Inception at Spa, while Schandorff came on board for the team’s maiden IMSA appearance at Petit Le Mans in November.

“There’s no better way to kick-off our 2022 campaign than heading over to the States for such an iconic event,” said Optimum Motorsport team principal Shaun Goff.

“We made our IMSA debut only a couple of months ago so we’re all really excited to get the ball rolling for an entire season.

“Our 2021 season ended quite abruptly due to the cancellation of what would’ve been our final event of the year in Kyalami. After a well-deserved rest over the Christmas break, the team [is] raring to go and ready to roar at Daytona 24.”

Inception is the second McLaren customer team to declare a 2022 IMSA involvement after Crucial Motorsport, which is contesting the Endurance Cup races only.

No McLaren outfit has previously completed a full season of GTD, although Compass Racing fielded a 720S GT3 in the Sprint Cup for two seasons ending in 2020.

Optimum has a busy start to the year lined up, with the team also set to run two McLarens in February’s Asian Le Mans Series including one under the Inception name.