Harper produces qualifying excellence

Harper and his team-mates Max Hesse and Neil Verhagen headed into their third season of racing on the world-famous Nürburgring Nordschleife with high hopes, following a stunning 2021 season that featured two race wins and second in the final points standings.

The talented trio had a new car beneath them for their first race outing of the season on the 15 mile Nordschleife, as they raced their BMW M4 GT3 for the first time in its eye-catching yellow, red and black Shell Helix Ultra livery.

Harper was straight up to speed in the new car and went on to produce a sensational display in qualifying. The Northern Irishman only had one flying lap in the closing minutes of the session, but he made it count with a brilliant 7m 51.850s effort to secure second on the grid.

Not only was that Harper’s fastest lap on the Nordschleife so far, it also enters the record books as the third quickest qualifying lap ever around the circuit layout used in the Nürburgring Endurance Series – just one and a half seconds shy of the best time to date.

Unfortunately after the joy of qualifying, the race would ultimately not go the team’s way that afternoon. Hesse took on the opening stint and slipped from second to ninth over the opening hour, before Harper emerged from the pitstop cycle in an improved fifth.

Daniel Harper: “While the race result may not look the best on paper, we come away from round one reasonably happy with our performance considering it was our first time running the new BMW M4 GT3 in a race situation.

“Personally, I’m naturally thrilled with the lap I put together in qualifying. The car was absolutely mega and it all clicked for me. We hoped to have been able to challenge for a podium from there, but we lost quite a bit of time in code zones and weren’t quite able to fight back and regain the lost ground.”

“We showed the potential is definitely there to be in the mix at the front though and now we’ve just got a couple of things to work on with the car ahead of the next round.

“Thank you to Team RMG and BMW Motorsport for all their hard work, and to everyone who’s cheering me on back home, I’ve been overwhelmed again by all the messages of support.”

The next round of the Nürburgring Endurance Series is on April 9.

Ahead of the start of the 2022 season, Harper was delighted to have been recognised as one of the top young talents in British motorsport by two leading institutions.

Firstly, he was chosen to remain on the British Racing Drivers’ Club’s SuperStars programme for a third season, extending his partnership with the prestigious club into a fourth consecutive year, before once again being selected as part of the Motorsport UK Academy’s Team UK.