Harper wins on World Endurance Championship debut
Daniel Harper has won for BMW and Team WRT on his World Endurance Championship debut at the Six Hours of Imola, but Charlie Eastwood retired from the race.
Anthony McIntosh, Parker Thompson and Dan Harper won the season-opening World Endurance Championship race at Imola [Getty Images] Daniel Harper has won for BMW and Team WRT on his World Endurance Championship debut at the Six Hours of Imola in the LMGT3 class. Northern Ireland's Harper, along with team-mates Parker Thompson of Canada and the USA's Anthony McIntosh, held off a late charge from the #33 Corvette to win the opening round of the season. After six hours of racing in Italy, the winning margin for the #69 BMW was just 0.
265 seconds as Harper took the chequered flag. The team capitalised on a late retirement for #10 McLaren of Great Britain's Tom Fleming, Germany's Marvin Kirchoffer and Antares Au of Hong Kong, while a fast final pit stop also helped Harper and his team-mates to win. The victory continues Harper's superb start to the season after he won the Daytona 24 Hours for BMW in January, while he also inherited a NLS victory in March after Max Verstappen's car was disqualified at the Nurburgring.
However, there was disappointment for Charlie Eastwood in the LMGT3 class after his TF Sport Corvette, which he shares with Peter Dempsey and Salih Yoluc, was forced with retire from the race with a technical issue while running in the top 10. The Hypercar class and overall race was won by the #8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa. The race in Italy was the first round of the championship after the scheduled opener in Qatar was rescheduled from March to October due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
The Six Hours of Spa in Belgium is the next round on 9 May, before the iconic Le Mans 24 Hours from 13-14 June. Elsewhere, at the Andalusia Rally-Sierra Morena, William Creighton and co-driver Liam Regan finished seventh in the European Rally Championship opener in Spain. Two-time Irish Tarmac champion Callum Devine and navigator Noel O'Sullivan were 15th, while Philip Allen and Craig Drew were forced to retire on Saturday with crash damage.