Dan Harper and Max Hesse are two of the young guns competing on the world racing stage for BMW M Motorsport. Harper and Hesse, along with Neil Verhagen, were the three drivers picked for the revived BMW Junior program back in 2020. Legendary team boss Jochen Neerspach guided them through their development to become full-fledged factory drivers in 2023. Over the three years in the program, the trio worked their way up the ladder from the M240i Racing to the M4 GT4 and gradually to the M6 and M4 GT3 models.
Harper and Hesse did most of their racing in Europe until this year, competing in big European races like the Nürburgring and Spa 24 Hour races as well as the GT World Challenge Europe series. In their first year of racing in the US on tracks new to them, the two won the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup GTD Pro Drivers Championship and finished fourth in class in the overall championship, driving the #48 M4 GT3 EVO for Paul Miller Racing. A fantastic season.
BimmerLife: How did you guys get started in racing?
Max Hesse: For me it was pretty early. I had my first go-kart lesson when I was three years old. My dad was always a fan of motorsport but didn’t have the possibility to do it himself, so he carried that passion over to me. I did go-karts for many years, then three years of TCR racing in Germany (with Audi and Hyundai in ADAC TCR Germany), and that led to coming to BMW.
Dan Harper: I also started with my family, with my grandparents. My grandfather was a rally driver, just enjoying it as a hobby more than anything. My father was involved on the mechanical side of things and working on the cars, and my mom was a co-driver. That’s how my parents met – through rallying. I did a year of rallying early in my career, but it didn’t work out. I enjoyed racing against other people more than racing against the clock. I started circuit racing with a Ginetta scholarship and then won the Porsche Junior shootout in Great Britain, which led to BMW.
Junior Team drivers (right to left) Harper, Verhagen and Hesse give a lot of credit to Jochen Neerspach (left) for their development.
BL: How did the connection with BMW happen?
Harper: To be honest, it kind of came out of nowhere. After winning Porsche Carrera Cup the second year and having Nick Tandy (Porsche factory driver) as my team boss, the plan for the next year was to do Porsche Supercup. Because I won the Carrera Cup in 2019, I was also put forward for the Porsche Junior program in Europe, for the shootout (Porsche has a “shootout” every year to determine who will be on the official driver roster as a Porsche Junior). Literally a week before the shootout, I was working at a part-time job at a karting track and the phone rang from BMW. They told me about their plan for the Junior program and asked if I could come to Munich for a meeting.
Hesse: I was driving in TCR but never expected to be contacted by BMW. The year that I won the TCR championship with Hyundai (2019), we hoped to keep going but it was very tight with the budget. I had the same experience as Dan – I got a call from a German number and picked up. I think it was more stressful for me than for him, because I got a call a bit later and was told we would meet in two days and I would have to sign or not. I was supposed to meet with Hyundai on that same day but decided on the BMW meeting because of the opportunity of having Jochen Neerspach as a mentor.
Hesse (left of car), Neil Verhagen (by fender) and Harper (next to Verhagen) won their first race at the Nordschleife in an M6 GT3 in 2021.
BL: How important was the BMW Junior program with Jochen Neerspach for you in your development as a driver, and having the ability to work your way up through cars like the M240i Racing to the M4 GT4 and then the GT3 cars?
Hesse: It was huge. We were very fortunate because we were handed all of the tools that we really needed. We were full-time at Formula Medicine working on our fitness and mental strength, as well as on team building because we were all living together there (Hesse, Harper and Verhagen). We got the opportunity to do development testing. 2020 was a bit slow because of COVID but when 2021 came around we were able to drive the GT3 car on the Nordschleife and had Augusto Farfus as a teammate, which was very important. We were very lucky that BMW put up this program. They took the time to build us up over two or three years instead of throwing us right away into a GT3 car. We had targets to reach all along the way.
Harper: Having Jochen involved with his experience and knowledge brought a lot of attention to the program and to us as drivers. We never had to communicate to the bosses at BMW where we wanted to drive next, it was always Jochen. He had the plan of the steps he wanted us to take and what he thought we needed to get to where we are now. Looking back, I think he nailed it. It was Jochen that wanted to start the program, which shows the passion he still has for motorsport.
Harper, Hesse and Augusto Farfus drove together in GT World Challenge Europe last season.
BL: You both have done a lot of racing in Europe in your careers and with BMW. How do you like racing in the US?
Harper: I’m really enjoying it. The tracks are more old school, more like I’m used to in the UK. They’re high speed with not much runoff and a bit more risk involved. The Paul Miller Racing guys are also great fun and very professional. They’ve given us a fantastic car every weekend. It’s been very cool and it’s been great driving with Max full time. We’ve known each other for almost five years now, so we know each other really well and we also like the car set up in similar ways.
Hesse: It’s been great. I think IMSA is also one of the only series where you do a proper championship with ten rounds, and the level of competition in GTD Pro has been very high. Like Dan said, the team has been awesome. They made us feel at home from day one, and they have a very professional work ethic. I also like the tracks here a lot. The only track we’ve been at before that’s on the calendar is Indy from last year (in the SRO Indy 8 Hour).
BL: Have either of you driven the new M2 race car?
Hesse: Yeah, it’s great. We’ve been part of the development and the car is very nice. We tried to learn from what went wrong with the last generation M2 CS, which had high running costs. It was not too far away from a GT4 car, so the whole idea with the new M2 race car was to minimize cost and make it more customer friendly. Mechanically it drives very well and it will be a nice car.
Harper and Hesse got their first IMSA win in the Six Hours of Watkins Glen.
BL: What would you guys be doing if you weren’t race car drivers?
Harper: My mom tells me I’d be the world’s fastest taxi driver! Honestly, when I got done with school, if I hadn’t gotten the program with Porsche at that time, I was signed up to be an electrician.
Hesse: I was leaning a bit more on the business side, maybe toward something like travel management.
Harper and Hesse, along with Connor De Phillippi closed out the IMSA season with at win in the Petit Le Mans.
BL: What do you want to do with your career over the next five years or so?
Hesse: I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to get into the GTP car (M Hybrid V8). We don’t know what could happen with the regulations in the future, but at some stage it’s our plan to get into the GTP car, but if it happens it happens and if it doesn’t it doesn’t. At the moment, we’re so focused on the GT stuff – racing here in IMSA but also in Europe, and I’m very happy where I am right now.
Harper: Max said it quite well. Of course, all drivers want to be at the highest level of whatever they can be and right now that’s the IMSA GTP cars and the WEC Hypercars. We had a taste of it at the end of last year in Bahrain and it was mega. It was the first time I had experienced high downforce in a race car. It was really cool, but there’s a lot of learning and you need time to adapt to it. I hope we can get some more time in it, but we still have unfinished business in GT3 and some big races we want to win.
—David Haueter
[Photos by David Haueter and courtesy BMW, SRO]
