Dan Harper Battles Back To Top Ten Finish at Road America

BMW M Motorsport works driver Dan Harper and team-mate Max Hesse once again showed their fighting spirit to overcome an in-race penalty and score an important points finish in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Road America this past weekend (02-03 August).

Following a tough weekend in the previous outing at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Harper and Hesse were determined to return to the level of performance that netted them a fantastic maiden IMSA victory at Watkins Glen back in June.

A test at Road America the week prior provided them with the opportunity to get to grips with the historic circuit ahead of the event, ensuring they could hit the ground running in practice. Two productive sessions saw them setting a good pace in the competitive GTD PRO class.

Harper was handed the reins for the 15-minute qualifying session on Saturday evening and once again put in an excellent performance. The Northern Irishman posted the fourth quickest time in the session, to highlight the #48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO as a clear podium contender on Sunday.

The 24-year-old talent had to focus on staying out of trouble during a chaotic start to the race, with multiple incidents leading to back-to-back safety car periods. Green flag racing truly began 35 minutes in, with Harper settling into the top six overall. Different pitstop strategies under the early cautions ensured the order was fluctuating as the race developed, but a good, consistent run from Harper kept them in the mix. After another caution period, an unfortunate incident at the first corner on the restart resulted in contact with a Corvette.

Despite similar incidents in the GTD PRO field not drawing the attention of the stewards, Harper was handed a harsh drive-through penalty for his incident. Once this was completed along with the mandatory drive change pitstop, the #48 crew were a distant tenth in class. They needed luck on their side to regain the lost ground and it came just inside the final hour, as another safety car period put them onto the back of the class field. Hesse battled on impressively from there and started to make progress, moving them into the top six in class again.

Unfortunately though, the changes to their race strategy to accommodate the earlier penalty and caution periods meant they were tight on fuel in the closing stages. With no final late caution period to assist their fuel saving efforts, a pitstop in the closing minutes resulted in a seventh-place class finish.

Dan Harper: “That was definitely one of the most chaotic races I think I’ve ever been involved in. There were all sorts of incidents happening, some robust driving and a bunch of caution periods that really mixed up the plan and led to cars on alternate pitstop strategies. I’m gutted about the penalty for the incident with the Corvette. It was a racing incident and the penalty felt very harsh, especially considering at the very next corner I got hit hard and another car was spun around, but neither of those similar incidents were penalised. It’s frustrating, but it’s the way it goes sometimes. From there we needed a lot of things to go in our favour and while Max did a brilliant job to regain some of the lost positions, we were praying for a late caution to avoid the last gasp pitstop. Our pace has been good this weekend though, so we’ll regroup from this one and come back stronger next time out.”

The 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season continues later this month (23-24 August) with a trip to the VIRginia International Raceway.

Images from BMW M Motorsport.