Dan Harper Scores Seasons’ Best British GT Finish In Donington Storms

BMW M Motorsport works driver Dan Harper braved the elements to secure a hugely encouraging top six finish in the most chaotic race of his British GT Championship career so far at Donington Park this past weekend (25-26 May). 

Returning to the scene of his incredible title-winning performance in the 2023 British GT finale, Harper headed into the weekend hoping for an upturn in fortune after a difficult start to the season across the opening two events at Oulton Park and Silverstone.

Making good steps forward through official testing on Thursday, the Northern Irishman and team-mate Michael Johnston continued to make progress through practice on Saturday and felt they had the potential to be a competitive force heading into qualifying. Extracting everything they could from their Century Motorsport-prepared BMW M4 GT3 as they each tackled a ten-minute qualifying session, their combined efforts saw them narrowly miss out on the top ten as they secured 11th on the grid.

After dry conditions throughout their running so far, intermittent rain showers on race day would have a huge impact across the three-hour race. The unpredictability began on the green flag lap, as a sudden deluge forced the race start to be delayed to allow teams to switch to wet tyres. Johnston eventually took the race start and made some fantastic early progress, staying out of trouble in the early laps to move up to ninth before a sublime piece of opportunistic driving saw him pounce on an incident ahead to slip past three cars in one move. That came just before the team’s first pitstop, with Harper taking over on slick tyres after the track had sufficiently dried out over the opening 25 minutes. His time on track was short-lived though, as a huge rain shower only ten minutes later led to more than ten cars aquaplaning off circuit and the race being red flagged on safety grounds.

After a 50-minute delay to allow conditions to improve, the race restarted with Harper making an immediate stop to put Johnston back in the car. The Scotsman put in a composed drive around a number of subsequent safety car periods to keep them firmly in the top six battle. Harper returned to the hot seat for a final 50-minute sprint to the chequered flag. The 23-year-old talent was in the thick of the action as he battled it out with some of the leading contenders this season, with a spirited defensive drive netting the team a seasons’ best sixth place result.

Daniel Harper: “That race was pretty chaotic! It felt like a mini version of the Nordschleife at points, with sunshine on one half of the circuit and monsoon rain on the other. I enjoyed the challenge, fighting to keep the car on the tarmac and keep forward momentum. It was one of those races where any number of things could have gone against us, but largely it played out in our favour which was a relief. We didn’t have the pace to match the top guys in the final sprint to the finish, but it was a good feeling to be back up there in the top six.
After the difficult start to the season, this felt like a big step in the right direction. There’s still work to do, but the progression is there and we’ve got four weeks before the next round to look into the data and the car to find some more improvements.”

The 2024 British GT season continues next month (21-23 June) with the championship’s traditional overseas event at Spa-Francorchamps, with Harper set for back-to-back weekends in Belgium as he follows that up with the CrowdStrike 24 hours of Spa (26-30 June).

His first 24-hour race of the season is coming up this week though (30 May – 02 June), as he tackles the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring for the fifth year in a row. This time around, he will share a BMW M Team RMG-prepared BMW M4 GT3 with long-time team-mate Max Hesse and Nürburgring debutant Charles Weerts.

Harper: “I’m really looking forward to the Nürburgring 24 Hour race. It is such an incredible event to be part of and one of the highlights of my race season. Our preparation in the qualifiers weekend went well and I think we’re in a good place heading into the event. We certainly go back there with unfinished business, having not reached the finish in our last two attempts. We’ve won races on the Nordschleife before so we know we have the pace to do it, but the 24 hour race is a different challenge and you need luck to be in your favour. I have full confidence in our package. Charles has come on really well in a short space of time, while me and Max have built up a great partnership over the years. BMW M Team RMG are brilliant and will give us a car capable of winning the race, so let’s see what we can do!”