Dan Harper’s long wait for a first twenty-four-hour race victory was finally ended in Dubai on Sunday, with his performance proving instrumental in winning in the United Arab Emirates.
The number 777 Al Manar Racing liveried BMW Motorsport M4 GT3 Evo he shared with Oman’s Al Faisal Al Zubair, Germany’s Max Hesse, and the British duo of Ben Tuck and Darren Leung completed crossed the finishing line with a resounding two-minute lead from a brace of Porsche 911s.
All five drivers produced faultless stints behind the wheel of the BMW M4 GT3 Evo to put the new car on the top step of the podium and hand Team WRT a fourth victory at the prestigious race.
The BMW was part of a cat and mouse fight with the Porsche 911 GT3 R of Dinamic GT, which led the twentieth running of the Michelin-backed meeting at Dubai Autodrome at the halfway point. But clever pit-stop strategies kept Harper and his team-mates in the thick of the action and this ultimately proved the difference as they took the chequered flag first overall after 589 laps.
“Finally!” said Hillsborough-based Harper. “This result has been a long time coming but I have finally ticked the 24-hour race win box here in Dubai – it is great to get it but there are many more I want to do.
“A first win from the first race of 2025, I just can’t thank everyone enough, especially Faisal on what was his debut with us and BMW Motorsport. It is really amazing – I can’t believe it.”
Harper was also full of praise for the car, which was victorious on its international debut. For 2025, it gets new aerodynamics, a superior cooling package, and fresh chassis components.
“It wasn’t a bad day for the Evo car, which was flying all race,” he added. “I think we have made all the progress that we wanted with the car in testing and now we can start to celebrate that.”
Harper’s full programme for the 2025 campaign is expected to be announced in the coming days. Previously, he has campaigned in the British GT Championship, Nürburgring Endurance Series in Germany, and the Sprint and Endurance parts of the Intercontinental GT Challenge.
Meanwhile, Keith Cronin is set to defend his NAPA Irish Tarmac Rally Championship in a new supermini, switching from a M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2 to a Citroen C3. Partnered once again by Mikie Galvin, they are aiming for a third title in the cross-border series, starting on next month’s Corrib Oil Galway International Rally which they won convincingly 12 months ago.
“We looked at various options, and the Citroen came up as the best overall package for us for 2025,” explained Cronin, who could once again dovetail appearances on home soil with outings in the British Championship which he is aiming to win for a record-equalling fifth time.