Difficult British GT Opener for Harper At Oulton Park

BMW M Motorsport works driver Dan Harper has kicked off his second year in the British GT Championship with a hard-fought top ten finish from a challenging season opener at Oulton Park this past weekend (30 March-01 April).

Less than a week after receiving an unexpected call-up to defend his British GT drivers’ title, the Northern Irishman returned to the scene of his championship debut 12 months ago hoping to put in a strong performance alongside new team-mate Michael Johnston.
The duo made good strides forward through pre-event testing in their Century Motorsport-prepared BMW M4 GT3, however it became apparent on Saturday that they faced uphill battle to challenge for top results with the BMW’s facing a time deficit to other cars. That was compounded by Harper producing a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes in his qualifying session when the tyres were at their peak, putting him back in 15th on the timesheets. Johnston impressed though, securing sixth on the grid from his session. A change of weather saw heavy rain falling for the opening race on Monday, with Johnston adapting superbly to the treacherous conditions in the early stages. Soaking up pressure from behind, he maintained the top six place through to a full course yellow period.
Pitting whilst the racing was paused, Harper emerged from the stop in sixth. When racing resumed for a 15-minute sprint to the flag, he looked to make forward progress but soon found himself on the defensive from two cars behind. Unfortunately, a slight mistake through the high-speed Druids corner led to a scary trip across the grass and mud. He was able to recover to the circuit though, albeit back in ninth position, and brought the car home for a solid points finish to start the season.
The 23-year-old talent was behind the wheel for the start of race two, which began with clearer skies overhead. After a lengthy safety car period following a first lap incident, Harper found himself struggling to force much progress from the tough grid position. Losing time in the busy melee of the tight Oulton pitlane during their mandatory stop, Johnston headed out on a fresh set of slick tyres in 15th. While he would gain two places as others hit trouble, he spent the majority of the stint under a full course yellow period that took the race to the finish.

Daniel Harper: “It’s been a pretty difficult weekend unfortunately. Coming in with no preparation it was always going to be tricky, a case of building that relationship with Michael as quickly as possible and trying to maximise the weekend as best we could. Sadly we just didn’t have the ultimate pace in the dry or wet conditions to be challenging at the front of the field, whilst a few things went against us in the races as well. From a personal perspective, I’m disappointed with my performance and the mistakes that I made. There are some positives to take away from the weekend though, in particular how well Michael drove. He did a brilliant job in all weather conditions and will only get faster as the season goes on, so we’re going to put this weekend behind us and focus on coming back stronger at Silverstone.”

The 2024 British GT Championship continues with the prestigious Silverstone 500 event at the end of the month (27-28 April), whilst next up for Harper is the opening round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup at Paul Ricard this coming weekend (06-07 April).