Northern Ireland driver Daniel Harper is celebrating after claiming his maiden win in the British GT Championship.
Harper and teammate Darren Leung stormed through the field, making an incredible charge from 18th on the grid to take the chequered flag at the prestigious Silverstone 500 event.
It was a sensational display from the BMW M Motorsport works driver, who last raced on the GP layout in his title-winning Porsche Carrera Cup GB campaign back in 2019.
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For Harper, the win was extra special with his grandparents watching him race in person for the first time since 2019.
He said: "I can’t quite believe we did that! We knew we had the pace in the car to get a big result and just needed the chance to show it, but to come from 18th on the grid to win was more than we could have ever dreamt of before the race.
“Saturday was very frustrating and FP2 wasn’t our best session, so for that result to set the grid was a tough one for us. We had to put that behind us though and the longer three-hour race gave us time to recover, so we went in all guns blazing and ready to fight our way forward.
“Darren pulled out an amazing first stint to get us into the top ten so quickly, then the early safety car was perfect timing. At that point we knew we had a good chance of possibly getting up to the top five or so, but the podium still felt out of sight.
“The car was flying though, Century Motorsport had done a top job with it, and I was able to keep going forward and pull off some moves. We kept plugging away though and to eventually take the lead with that move into Brooklands was a great feeling."
Leung started the three-hour showpiece race and produced a stunning opening stint, storming forward eight places within the first 15 minutes alone to put their BMW into the top 10. A safety car period at that point presented the opportunity to hand the car over to Harper.
The 22-year-old from Hillsborough continued the charge when action resumed, pulling off some eye-catching overtaking moves to climb into the top five at the end of the first hour. Lapping as one of the fastest cars on circuit, he made further progress to get up to third before their next pitstop.
Leung emerged in fifth place and produced another faultless, consistent stint to maintain a top six berth heading into a lengthy safety car period, in which the team pitted the BMW for the final time. Harper ended up in fourth place as the action resumed for a 28-minute sprint to the finish.
Picking up two places within three laps of the restart, he then started hunting down the race-leading Lamborghini and quickly got onto their tail. What followed was a sensational, calculated overtake through the Brooklands/Luffield complex, reminiscent of moves pulled off in his Ginetta Junior days.
Once in the lead, Harper built a small gap and then controlled the final few laps to the chequered flag – sparking wild celebrations in the Century Motorsport garage.
“There’s so much to be happy with from today and to come away as championship leaders is just the icing on the cake. Now we’re at the top, we want to stay there and we’ll be working harder than ever to make sure we’re in the podium fight again next time out at Donington Park.”
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