Contact ends the inception racing challenge in the Silverstone 500

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It was a case of plenty of pace, but no joy this weekend at the Silverstone 500 as inception racing joined the Intelligent Money British GT Championship for the second round of the series. The Optimum Motorsport run #70 McLaren 720S GT3 ran in second position early in the three-hour endurance event, but ultimately, contact with a backmarker resulted in an early retirement.

It was an exceptionally busy build-up to the Silverstone round for the team, Brendan Iribe and Ollie Millroy, competing last weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, then remaining at the Belgian venue to test ahead of next months 24 Hours of Spa. It was a dash to Northampton for testing on Friday ahead of the race weekend.

The team worked through the official practice sessions, but it was in qualifying that the true pace of the package started to emerge, with Brendan second quickest in his run, while Ollie too proved rapid to ensure fifth position on the grid.

Brendan took the start, quickly dispatching two of his rivals, to shadow the #6 Mercedes of Ian Loggie. A textbook pass on lap eight at Brooklands put him into second position and he set about closing the gap to Hunter Abbott ahead. However, shortly afterwards, lapping the #25 backmarker of Dave Whitmore, Brendan and the GT4 racer made contact, damaging the right rear suspension of the McLaren.

He was able to return to the pits, where the team made repairs and sent Ollie out for a run to ensure the car was back in full working condition. With 26 laps in the books, the car was then retired from the race.

The team are next in action in the GT Open Championship at the Hungaroring on July 10-11.

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