Dan Harper Charges Forward To Brilliant Paul Ricard Podium
BMW M Motorsport works driver Dan Harper and his team-mates Darren Leung and Sean Gelael produced a supreme performance to charge forward from eighth on the grid to a podium finish in the opening round of the GT World Challenge Europe at Circuit Paul Ricard (12/13 April).
Returning to the scene of his brilliant first overall maiden GT World Challenge Europe race victory in the 2024 season opener, Harper’s focus this time around was on the Bronze class and supporting Darren Leung and Paradine Competition in their quest to challenge for more title success this year. The Northern Irishman, who is contesting selected GTWC rounds this season alongside his IMSA commitments, was determined to get their Endurance Cup campaign off to a strong start in the south of France alongside his two-time title-winning team-mate Leung and Gelael.
Up against a mammoth 59-car field, the championship’s biggest opening round grid in a decade, the trio unfortunately endured a difficult start on Friday. Great work from the team though ensured the #991 BMW M4 GT3 EVO was ready to go for qualifying on Saturday morning. Each driver tackled a 15-minute session, with their combined times securing them eighth in the Bronze class on the grid for the six-hour race into the darkness that evening. While a lower starting position than they’d ultimately hoped for, they were confident in the race pace in the BMW.
Leung started the race and as anticipated with the large race entry, the first couple of laps proved quite chaotic. Some expert driving from Leung ensured he stayed out of trouble though and he superbly emerged having gained five places to third in class. Brilliant pace from there saw Leung maintain the challenge for the top three in class throughout his two-hour stint before handing over to Gelael. The experienced GT racer kept them inside the top three throughout his double stint too, as day turned to night at Paul Ricard. Their efforts on track, combined with great strategy and pitstops by the Paradine Competition crew, ensured that Harper emerged in the class lead when he took control with two hours to go. The 24-year-old talent comfortably settled in under the lights and set a fast pace from the off.
An unfortunate full course yellow period just after their final pitstop dropped them to second place, with Harper facing a 40-second gap to the driver ahead with 50-minutes on the clock. The challenge didn’t faze him though and he set off in pursuit of the leading Ferrari.
The 2023 British GT champion pumped in a phenomenal run of laps as he hunted down the leader, cutting the lead to four seconds with ten minutes to go. Sadly another FCY period meant he didn’t quite have enough time to try and make a move, instead taking the chequered flag in second place to complete a brilliant effort from the #991 squad.
Dan Harper: “Coming away from Paul Ricard with a podium finish is a fantastic way to kick start the GT World Challenge Europe season, particularly after such a difficult start to the weekend. Great job by Paradine Competition to turn the weekend around and get us in the position to fight for the win. Darren did a brilliant job to pick his way through the busy opening laps and get up to third. He and Sean were faultless from there to keep us in the mix and were it not for a bit of bad luck with the full course yellow periods, I’m confident we could have come away with the victory. Either way, it’s a great result and gives everyone huge confidence going into the next rounds. Congratulations also to the team for securing a Silver class win with the sister #992 car, a huge performance on their first weekend running two cars in the championship.”
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