Inception “Looking Forward” to Taking McLaren Back to Le Mans

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Inception Racing is “looking forward” to being part of McLaren’s return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans next year, with the British squad set to be on the LMGT3 grid via Brendan Iribe’s automatic invite for winning IMSA’s Bob Akin award.

Iribe edged out Alan Brynjolffson by 20 points in the Bronze Cup championship, despite failing to finish the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans after getting collected in a multi-car accident.

Inception is so far the first confirmed entrant to Le Mans with the McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, with the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship yet to be released amid United Autosports’ bid to be on the full-time grid with the British manufacturer.

“It’s very important for the team and for Brendan to win this Bob Akin trophy,” team manager Bas Leinders told Sportscar365. “Brendan has done Le Mans twice, once in a Ferrari and once in a Porsche.

“But from the beginning he said he wanted to do it in a McLaren.That’s his biggest thing. He wants to race Le Mans and win Le Mans in a McLaren.

“There hasn’t been a McLaren since 1998, I believe it was, and now we know for sure that we will bring a McLaren to Le Mans with Inception Racing and Brendan.

“Normally it should be the same drivers on the car as we had [at Petit Le Mans].”

Iribe shared the McLaren with Frederik Schandorff and longtime driver coach Ollie Millroy in the ten-hour enduro at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

It will mark the first standalone Le Mans effort for the Optimum Motorsport-run organization after previously working with different entities for its two previous appearances in the GTE-Am class.

“We’re really looking forward to that,” Leinders said. “We were involved, Inception Racing/Optimum, had joined together with Kessel with the Ferrari and Project 1 when we did WEC. There were a lot of our [own] people were there.

“But now we’re looking forward to running the car ourselves.

“That’s obviously the advantage of GT3 cars now being [the platform] for Le Mans and WEC.

“That makes it also good for some other brands to get in, brands that maybe don’t get a WEC entry that can maybe still be present at Le Mans via invitation by winning championships [in other series].”

Leinders, meanwhile, addressed the fact that it lost out on its WEC LMGT3 bid, having been one of several existing McLaren GT3 teams to have pursued entries that ultimately have gone to United, which is co-owned by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown.

“We put ourselves forward for being the team. We definitely didn’t hide that,” he said.

“Obviously we are disappointed that McLaren didn’t chose us. We have been the longest-standing customer of McLaren since the 720 era.

“We’ve won five championships for McLaren. But then again, United have a long history with WEC. Zak Brown obviously knows a lot of people and can help get the McLarens on the grid, which is important for McLaren.

“We understand that but still at the same time we are disappointed. [But] I think McLaren will be on the WEC grid.

“We will definitely be [at Le Mans] and will try to win a second entry by doing Asian Le Mans.”

Daniel Lloyd contributed to this report

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