Inception team confident after superb podium in Asian Le Mans debut

In the opening round at Dubai Autodrome, the Yorkshire team started eighth in the GT class in the distinctive #7 McLaren 720S GT3 and Brendan Iribe, Ollie Millroy and Ben Barnicoat all shone in the four-hour race, making gains to finish a fine second in the GT class and 15th overall.

The second round wasn’t quite as successful, with the trio settling for sixth, 19th overall, but they can be confident when they travel to Abu Dhabi for the concluding two races of the championship at Yas Marina on Friday and Saturday.

Ahead of the opening round, the team were a little disappointed with their performance in free practice but were confident that race conditions would be a different matter, and so it proved to be.

Iribe was tasked with the first stint, making up a couple of places and handing over to teammate Millroy after 80-minutes of running. He started what would be his double stint in seventh place, quickly disposing of the #97 Aston Martin of Tom Canning and the #34 of Chandler Hull.

Soon a battle with the #1 HubAuto entry, driven by Marcos Gomes, became Millroy’s focal point as he closed up on the rear of the silver Mercedes.

It was a tight contest and when the #1 clipped the lapped #54 in traffic, the Inception racer was able to take the position and then pull a small gap in what was now third place.

Millroy handed over to Barnicoat with less than an hour remaining.

A mistake from the #40 Porsche however saw the GT class leader spin and then subsequently punished for persistent abuse of track limits, awarding the #7 Inception Racing crew not only a series debut podium, but the GT class runner-up position.

A repeat podium performance in the second round was always going to be a tough ask after the team experienced issues in qualifying. Inception started 17th of the 19 GT cars in the field but they roared back and missed out on a top-five position at the chequered flag by just 0.071 seconds.

Iribe carved his way up to 11th position by the start of lap four. It was to be a short stint for the American Bronze racer however as the team opted to pit him at the first available opportunity, and that came as soon as lap six with the first Full Course Yellow.

Millroy jumped into the car with 19-minutes on the clock and with a further caution period soon after, he was able to extend his stint to ensure just two further stops later in the race.

However, Millroy re-joined the action just as the first caution period was coming to an end, meaning that some of Iribe’s hard work during the opening laps was undone. Undeterred, he pressed on from 17th place and on the one-hour mark, had moved back into the top ten.

Millroy moved through to sixth position and he soon cleared the #54 of Francesco Castellacci to run fifth.

Iribe handed over to Barnicoat for the final stint and after four hours of racing, it came down to the last lap, with Barnicoat missing out by less than a tenth of a second in a near photo finish in sixth position.

Team Principal Shaun Goff said: “Two races and two strong results show that it has been a good start to our challenge. Now we head to Abu Dhabi and I think we will be especially strong there.”