The 2025 season got underway with the Michelin Middle East 24 hours of Dubai held at the Dubai Autodrome in the UAE.
This was the first 24-hour car race for EDGE driver Thomas Ikin, who was entered with Optimum Motorsport & their McLaren 720 S GT3 Evo.
Following testing the team went into qualifying confident of their performance and this was backed up with an 11th place in the GT3 class, which was made up of over 30 entries.
The number 33 machine got a fantastic start and was running in third place once the dust settled after the first handful of laps.
After the usual shuffle that occurs during driver change and pitstops the team were running just outside the top 10 at the six-hour mark but showing top 6 lap time pace & looking good.
This promising pace was backed up as they were up to sixth-place by the eight-hour mark and looking strong as it went into the night stints.
As is often the case in a 24-hour race, Lady luck has to shine upon you and at 3 am disaster struck for the Optimum car. Coming in for a scheduled fuel stop another car had accidentally boxed in the Optimum fueling slot which left the car stranded in the live lane. It was then collected by another car coming in for its pit stop. Suspension damage ensued and the team lost over 10 minutes in repair.
Once the McLaren emerged again from the pit lane they were down to 17th place with a mountain to climb but all drivers were up to the challenge.
They got to work and within the next hour had made up a number of places & were showing some strong pace.
Unfortunately, shortly after this the car developed a gearbox issue which ended up requiring a full replacement. The team did a fantastic job to get the gearbox changed and get the car out again to make sure that it could run to the finish but any hopes of a top-10 place were dashed.
Shortly after the race EDGE driver Ikin commented:
“it was really a case of what could’ve been, you do just need some luck in 24-hour races and we just didn’t get it this time but it was a fantastic experience to get my first 24-hour car race under my belt and I would like to thank EDGE and Optimum Motorsport for the opportunity and I look forward to more in the future”.