Steve Soper
Soper driving aMcLaren F1 GTR atDonington Park, England in 1997.
Nationality	British
Born	(1951-09-27)27 September 1951 (age 73)
BTCC record
Teams	Austin Rover,TWR,Ford,BMW, Peugeot Sport UK
Drivers' championships	0
Wins	14
Podium finishes	–
Poles	–
Fastest laps	–
Debut season	1982
First win	1983 (Overall)
Best championship position	2nd
Final season (2001) position	6th (93 points)

Steven Soper (born 27 September 1951) is a Britishracing driver.

He raced in majorsports car andtouring car categories in the 1980s and 1990s. He wasJapanese Touring Car Champion in1995, and also won the24 Hours Nürburgring in 1987, the24 Hours of Spa in 1992 and 1995 and theGuia Race in 1997. He achieved many of his successes through his longest association, withBMW, and is widely regarded as one of the best Touring car racers of all time.

Across just over two decades Soper won three major races: the 24 Hours Nürburgring in 1987, the 24 Hours of Spa in 1995 and the Guia Race in 1997.

Soper had been successful in one make series, before making hisBritish Saloon Car Championship debut in 1982 in anAustin Metro.^[1] His talent was spotted byTom Walkinshaw and he joinedTWR in 1983. He won the championship in his first season with the worksAustin Rover team but rivalFrank Sytner protested the TWR team and his Rover Vitesse was later deemed illegal due to an issue with the engine installation. TWR was disqualified and the title was awarded toAndy Rouse.^[2] He later joinedEggenberger Motorsport and finished as runner-up in the series in 1988 in aFord Sierra RS500 Cosworth, enjoying many on-track battles with Andy Rouse in the process.^[3]

Soper challenged for the title in 1991, finishing 4th and in 1993, finishing as runner up behind teammateJoachim Winkelhock for BMW. Soper had led the championship for most of the season but a run of bad luck towards the end of the year damaged his title challenge. During the season finale of the 1992 championship, Soper was involved in the infamous collision withJohn Cleland, which cost Cleland the title and famously led him to label Soper 'an animal'.^[4] 1995 saw Soper race in the Japanese Super Touring championship for Schnitzer BMW, winning the championship outright that year.

Soper raced in the German Super Tourenwagen Cup in 1996, challenging for the title until an incident late in the season with his team mate ended his championship chances. He finished second overall toEmanuele Pirro. In 1997 he came second in theFIA GT Championship. Soper finished fifth driving a Ford Sierra forEggenberger Motorsport in the one-offWorld Touring Car Championship in1987 run under Group A regulations. That year, he won theBathurst 1000, but was later disqualified for a technical infringement^[5]Soper was offered a works drive forBMW, and competed in the nightEuropean,Japanese andGerman Touring Car Championships.^[6] During the1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, he expressed dislike of the 24-hour classic race, established in the early 20th century.

By 2000, Soper fell out of favour withGerhard Berger, who was in charge of BMW's motorsport operations and retired from racing as he was solely interested in racing BMWs and acquired a BMW dealership in Lincoln.^[7] For 2001, he reluctantly made a surprise return to the British Touring Car Championship withPeugeot. The car's build rendered it less successful than theVauxhall Astra. He finished 6th in a thin field and was advised to retire on medical grounds after a heavy crash in the final round.

In 2013, Soper, who had earned the nickname "Soperman" (with final syllable stress to sound like "superman") from his fans during his career, announced plans, on medical clearance, to race.^[8]

In 2005, Soper was ranked as the greatest touring car driver ever by a panel of experts inMotor Sport Magazine.^{[9][10][11][12][13][14]} In 2024,Autosport ranked him as the greatest BTCC driver to not have won the title.^[15]

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position – 1973–1990 in class) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap – 1 point awarded ?–1989 in class)

1. ^ – Race was stopped due to heavy rain. No points were awarded.

† Events with 2 races staged for the different classes.

‡ Endurance driver.

Source:^{[16][17][18][19][20][21][22]}

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	DC	Points
1986	Eggenberger Motorsport	Ford Sierra XR4Ti	MNZ Ret	DON Ret	HOC 3	MIS Ret	AND	BRN Ret	ZEL Ret	NUR Ret	SPA 7	SIL Ret	NOG 4	ZOL 11	JAR Ret	EST 1	30th	69
1987	Ford Texaco Racing Team	Ford Sierra RS Cosworth	DON	EST 2†	AND	ZOL 1†	ZEL	IMO	NOG								NC	0
1988	Ford Texaco Racing Team	Ford Sierra RS500	MNZ 1	DON Ret	EST 1	JAR 1	DIJ 1	VAL Ret	NUR 1	SPA 4	ZOL Ret	SIL 2	NOG 1				2nd	290

† Not eligible for points.

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Points
1987	Ford Texaco Racing Team	Ford Sierra RS Cosworth	MNZ DSQ	JAR ovr:5 cls:6	DIJ ovr:3 cls:1	NUR Ret	SPA Ret							5th	193
		Ford Sierra RS500						BNO ovr:2 cls:2	SIL ovr:13 cls:5	BAT DSQ	CLD ovr:1 cls:1	WEL ovr:3 cls:2	FJI ovr:5 cls:3

* Overall race position shown. Registered WTCC points paying position may differ.

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
1988	Miedecke Motorsport	Ford Sierra RS500	BAT Ret	WEL NC	PUK 1†	FUJ									NC	0
1994	BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW 318i	FUJ 1 Ret	FUJ 2 7	MAC 1 2	MAC 2 2	SEN 1 C	SEN 2 C	WEL 1 4	WEL 2 Ret	CLD 1 C	CLD 2 C	CHE 1 C	CHE 2 C	3rd	?

† Not eligible for points.

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

Source:^[23]
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position; races initalics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1984	Mobil Rover Racing	Ron Dickson	Rover Vitesse	Group A	116	29th	8th
1987*	Ford Texaco Racing Team	Pierre Dieudonné	Ford Sierra RS500	1	161	DSQ	DSQ
1988	Miedecke Motorsport	Andrew Miedecke	Ford Sierra RS500	A	102	DNF	DNF
1993	Benson & Hedges Racing	Tony Longhurst	BMW M3 Evolution	A	79	DNF	DNF

* 1987 finished 1st on the road but later disqualified.

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1983	Mazdaspeed	Jeff Allam James Weaver	Mazda 717C	C Jr.	267	18th	2nd
1996	Team Bigazzi TeamBMW Motorsport	Jacques Laffite Marc Duez	McLaren F1 GTR	GT1	318	11th	9th
1997	TeamBMW Motorsport BMWTeam Schnitzer	JJ Lehto Nelson Piquet	McLaren F1 GTR	GT1	236	DNF	DNF
1998	TeamBMW Motorsport	Hans-Joachim Stuck Tom Kristensen	BMW V12 LM	LMP1	60	DNF	DNF
1999	Price+Bscher	Thomas Bscher Bill Auberlen	BMW V12 LM	LMP	345	5th	4th

Year	Team	Car	Class	Heat 1	Heat 2	Pos.
1993	Watson’s Team Schnitzer	BMW 318i	FIA Class 2	-	-	DNF
1994	San Miguel Team Schnitzer	BMW 318is	FIA Class 2	2nd	2nd	2nd
1995	BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW 318is	FIA Class 2	5th	2nd	2nd
1996	BMW Team Bigazzi	BMW 320i	FIA Class 2	DNF	1st	12th
1997	BMW Team Bigazzi	BMW 320i	FIA Class 2	1st	1st	1st
1998	BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW 320i	FIA Class 2	1st	1st	1st
2001	WK Longman Racing	Peugeot 306	Super Production	3rd	DNF	-

• Steve Soper career summary at DriverDB.com
• Official Steve Soper Website

• English racing drivers
• British Touring Car Championship drivers
• World Touring Car Championship drivers
• Japanese Touring Car Championship drivers
• Living people
• 1951 births
• Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters drivers
• 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
• American Le Mans Series drivers
• World Sportscar Championship drivers
• 24 Hours of Spa drivers
• European Touring Car Championship drivers
• BMW M drivers
• Schnitzer Motorsport drivers
• Peugeot Sport drivers
• Jaguar Racing drivers
• David Price Racing drivers
• Nürburgring 24 Hours drivers
• 20th-century English sportsmen

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from May 2015
• EngvarB from May 2015