It is with regret that the Club reports on the death of Life Member John Harper on the 14th of December, who was elected as a Member in 1975. The following tribute has been written by David Brazell who has kindly given his permission for the Club to publish it.
John was born on the 2nd of April 1939 in Charlton Kings near Cheltenham, as a teenage boy he cleaned cars for Jaguar Le Mans winner Ivor Bueb at Turks Motors, Ivors garage business. In 1962, whilst in the Army at 3 Para regiment, he started his racing career in a Morgan plus 4.
After leaving the Army he worked as a mechanic for Chris Summers, and formed an alliance with Jaguars with the purchase of the ex Bill Rigg IRS Jaguar mk2 which had been built by the competition department. He races this car in 1964, enjoying various success.
He the purchased the heavily crashed remains of Jack Lamberts Jaguar E type RL26, which was rebuilt with co-driver Mike Merrick’s funding at Jaguar. The duo the competed at Brands Hatch 500km, Spa 1000km and Nürburgring 1000km in 1966, prepared by John Pearson, again with successful results.
In 1966, John also purchased the ex Peter Whitehead Mk1 Cooper Jaguar with Jeremy Broad, and the pair competed in the first Griffiths Formula races for historic cars. John survived a huge accident at Castle Coombe which not only made the ugly Cooper uglier but damn nearly killed him.
Without a regular drive he teamed up with Anthony Hutton and with preparation by Ron Beaty of Forward Engineering and John May. They raced Lister Jaguars, XKs, Cooper Jaguars and even a GT40/Mirage for many years.
He formed other alliances with BRDC Member John Beasley, racing John’s Aston Martin DBR2 and Porsche 911s. With Martin Johnson, he raced the fabulous Ferrari Breadvan, which John recalled great dices with Mike Salmon in Viscount Downe`s Aston Martin Project 212, and also the 1954 Sebring-winning Jaguar D type 3CPF.
He regularly drove the vast array of cars for Anthony Mayman: the ERA R4D, Lotus 16, Ferrari 500 and Maserati 250F to name a few. For Vejay Mallya, the Sunbeam Tiger, ERA R4D, BRM P261 and the exquisite and unforgettable Vanwall VW10 were all driven by John.
John continued actively competing throughout the 80s/90s and early 2000s, in a vast number of cars, BRMs ,Coopers .Jaguars Connaughts, March and Arrows F1 cars, and even a McLaren M8 Can Am car.
He enjoyed the reopened Goodwood circuit, and won a memorable Richmond and Gordon race in the BRM P25 in atrocious conditions from BRDC Member Nigel Corner.
His last race was fittingly back in a Jaguar C type in 2024 and at Silverstone.
John was most certainly a popular figure within motor racing paddocks and will be dearly missed. The Club sends its condolences to his wife Sandra and daughter Louise.