Dan Harper Celebrates Fantastic Nürburgring 24 Hours Podium

BMW M Motorsport works driver Dan Harper has secured a brilliant first overall podium finish in the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring after battling to a third-place result in a weather-affected 52nd running of the endurance classic (30 May – 02 June).
Harper put in a sublime individual performance as part of a fantastic team effort alongside Max Hesse and Charles Weerts, with the trio topping the qualifying timesheets and fighting for the race lead in what was ultimately the shortest ever edition of Nürburgring 24 Hours after heavy fog played havoc.
The Northern Irishman headed into his fifth attempt at the world-famous race with unfinished business, having seen potential podium challenges in both each of the previous two years get cruelly derailed by incidents on circuit.
After a strong showing in the traditional ‘qualifiers’ weekend back in April, Harper, his regular team-mate Hesse and Nürburgring newcomer Weerts were confident they had the speed to be in the mix at the front of the field in their BMW M Team RMG prepared BMW M4 GT3.
Harper got them off to a stunning start in qualifying on Thursday by posting the outright fastest laps in both of the opening two sessions. He particularly excelled in the second run as the sun set over the Nürburgring, improving his earlier effort to lap over four seconds faster than anyone else at the time.
Hesse went on to complete a clean sweep for the team with a new quickest lap of the event so far in the third session on Friday, which ensured they headed into the all-important ‘top qualifying’ shootouts later this afternoon in positive spirits.
It was Harper who tackled the opening run, where each driver got only two flying laps. The reigning British GT champion achieved the objective, with a great lap placing him within the top five to ensure progression into the final pole position shootout.
A mandated driver change for the last qualifying run put Hesse in the hot seat and the German ace went on to produce a stunning performance. A 8:10.992 lap secured a maiden Nürburgring 24 Hours pole position for #72 crew and the first for the BMW M4 GT3.
Whilst naturally elated with the result, they knew that pole gave no guarantee of success come the big race and it turned out their advantage would be very short-lived. Lining up on the grid ready for the start, the looming threat of rain led to a tricky tyre choice for the 130-car entry.
The #72 crew elected to go for slick tyres, however as Harper took to the Nordschleife on the formation lap, it was clear that was the wrong decision as the rainfall increased. Therefore he dived into the pitlane just as the race went green, falling down the order as they switched to wet rubber. The 23-year-old talent hit back with a stunning recovery drive across the opening hour, excelling in the wet conditions as he stormed up the order. Pulling off some eye-catching overtaking moves, he captured the attention of the viewing audience as he climbed into the top three. Continuing to successfully minimise the lost time from the race start, Harper completed his double stint and then watched on as strong runs from Hesse and Weerts continued their podium challenge as day turned to night over the Nordschleife.

Harper returned to the cockpit at the six-hour mark and carried on their fight towards the head of the field. Entering a three-way battle for the on-the-road lead, it soon developed into a thrilling duel for top spot with the #16 Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Christopher Mies.  The two drivers traded thrilling high-speed overtakes as they crossed the seven-hour point, with Mies just edging ahead as the fog started to descend. Harper soon dived into the pitlane for his next fuel and tyre stop, at the exact point the red flags were put out as visibility became too poor.
At almost midnight local time, race control confirmed the race wouldn’t restart until the morning. Come sunrise, the fog remained and the long wait for a potential return to racing continued through the morning and into the afternoon. With only two and a half hours of the race remaining, the decision was made to run some reconnaissance laps behind the safety car in the hope conditions would improve. That didn’t happen though and the race was officially concluded. Harper, Hesse and Weerts were classified third in the final result, dropping back a place from where they were running at the red flag once different factors including pit times had been factored in. That result was a fitting conclusion to a sensational performance from the trio, securing BMW M Motorsport a fifth overall podium finish in five years.

Daniel Harper: “Every year I come back here for the Nürburgring 24 Hours, I’m blown away by just how special this event is. 240,000 fans came out to enjoy the action and you feel so privileged to be in a position to be part of the race for them, we just wish they had more racing to enjoy! It’s a shame how it all played out, with less than eight hours of green flag racing in the end. There’s nothing you can do about it though, the Nürburgring is a truly unique venue in world motorsport and we’re all used to seeing the weather plays its part. The car felt amazing all week. We were one off if not the fastest car in every session and proved we had the pace to be challenging for the win. It was so difficult to make the right call on tyres at the beginning and unfortunately we got it wrong, but we made the best of the situation and minimised the loss in those opening hours. I probably had two of the most enjoyable race stints I’ve had on the Nordschleife so far. It was great fun out there pulling off some moves in the day and night, enjoying proper close, wheel-to-wheel, contact-free racing against some fantastic drivers. This is one of those races where you can be as quick as you like, but there’s so many other factors at play and you need luck to go in your favour. This year, we had the speed to win the race, but it just wasn’t to be. Still, I’m absolutely delighted to get my first overall podium and it was a great achievement by everyone involved. A massive thank you to BMW for the chance to compete in this incredible event, I’m forever grateful to them for the opportunities they’re providing me. Also thank you to BMW M Team RMG, they did a phenomenal job and gave us a race-winning car.”

Harper’s busy 2024 race season continues later this month with back-to-back weekends at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium; the next round of the British GT Championship (22-23 June) followed by the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa (26-30 June) for the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.