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Steven Soper (born 27 September 1951) is a British racing driver.
He raced in major sports car and touring car categories in the 1980s and 1990s. He was Japanese Touring Car Champion in 1995, and also won the 24 Hours Nürburgring in 1987, the 24 Hours of Spa in 1992 and 1995 and the Guia Race in 1997. He achieved many of his successes through his longest association, with BMW, and is widely regarded as one of the best Touring car racers of all time.
Soper challenged for the title in 1991, finishing 4th and in 1993, finishing as runner up behind teammate Joachim 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 with John Cleland, which cost Cleland the title and famously led him to label Soper 'an animal'. 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 to Emanuele Pirro. In 1997 he came second in the FIA GT Championship. Soper finished fifth driving a Ford Sierra for Eggenberger Motorsport in the one-off World Touring Car Championship in 1987 run under Group A regulations. That year, he won the Bathurst 1000, but was later disqualified for a technical infringement Soper was offered a works drive for BMW, and competed in the night European, Japanese and German Touring Car Championships. During the 1999 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 with Gerhard 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. For 2001, he reluctantly made a surprise return to the British Touring Car Championship with Peugeot. The car's build rendered it less successful than the Vauxhall 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.
In 2005, Soper was ranked as the greatest touring car driver ever by a panel of experts in Motor Sport Magazine. In 2024, Autosport ranked him as the greatest BTCC driver to not have won the title.
† Events with 2 races staged for the different classes.
‡ Endurance driver.
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| 1990 ! nowrap | Bigazzi M Team ! nowrap | BMW M3 Sport Evolution ! A1 | MNZ 1 2 | MNZ 2 4 | VAR 1 | VAR 2 | PER 2 | PER 1 | MAG 1 | MAG 2 | VAL 1 | VAL 2 | MIS 1 | MIS 2 | MIS 1 | MIS 2 | IMO 1 3 | IMO 2 2 | VAR 1 | VAR 2 | MNZ 1 Ret | MNZ 2 6 ! 13th ! 58 |
| 1992 ! nowrap | CiBiEmme Engineering ! nowrap | BMW M3 Sport Evolution ! S1 | MNZ 1 3 | MNZ 2 9 | MAG 1 | MAG 2 | Mugello Circuit | Mugello Circuit | BIN 1 | BIN 2 | VAL 1 | VAL 2 | IMO 1 | IMO 2 | MIS 1 | MIS 2 | PER 1 | PER 2 | VAR 1 | VAR 2 | MNZ 1 | MNZ 2 ! 16th ! 14 |
| 1996 ! nowrap | Scuderia Bigazzi ! nowrap | BMW 320i ! | Mugello Circuit | Mugello Circuit | MAG 1 | MAG 2 | MNZ 1 | MNZ 2 | BIN 1 | BIN 2 | MIS 1 | MIS 2 | IMO 1 | IMO 2 | PER 1 | PER 2 | PER 1 | PER 2 | VAR 1 | VAR 2 | VAL 1 8 | VAL 2 2 ! 14th ! 18 |
| 1994 ! nowrap | BMW Team Schnitzer ! nowrap | BMW 318i | Autopolis | Autopolis | Sportsland SUGO | Sportsland SUGO | TOK 1 | TOK 2 | Suzuka Circuit | Suzuka Circuit | Mine Circuit | Mine Circuit | AID 1 | AID 2 | Tsukuba Circuit | Tsukuba Circuit | SEN 1 | SEN 2 | Fuji Speedway | Fuji Speedway | 3rd | 132 |
| 1995 ! nowrap | BMW Team Schnitzer ! nowrap | BMW 318i | Fuji Speedway | Fuji Speedway | Sportsland SUGO | Sportsland SUGO | TOK 1 | TOK 2 | Suzuka Circuit | Suzuka Circuit | Mine Circuit | Mine Circuit | AID 1 | AID 2 | SEN 1 | SEN 2 | Fuji Speedway | Fuji Speedway | 1st | 124 |
| 1995 ! nowrap | BMW Team Schnitzer ! nowrap | BMW 318is | Zolder | Zolder | SPA 1 | SPA 2 | Osterreichring | Osterreichring | Hockenheimring | Hockenheimring | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | Salzburgring 11 | Salzburgring 7 | AVUS 22 | AVUS 20 | NÜR 1 3 | NÜR 2 4 | ! 21st ! 90 | ||||
| 1996 ! nowrap | BMW Team Bigazzi ! nowrap | BMW 320i | Zolder 7 | Zolder 4 | ASS 1 1 | ASS 2 3 | Hockenheimring 6 | Hockenheimring 3 | Sachsenring 5 | Sachsenring 2 | Wunstorf 1 | Wunstorf 3 | ZWE 1 3 | ZWE 2 2 | Salzburgring 1 | Salzburgring 2 | AVUS Ret | AVUS 6 | NÜR 1 13 | NÜR 2 Ret | !style="background:#DFDFDF;" 2nd !style="background:#DFDFDF;" | 491 | |
| 1997 ! nowrap | Isert BMW-Team ! nowrap | BMW 320i | Hockenheimring | Hockenheimring | Zolder | Zolder | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | Sachsenring | Sachsenring | Norisring | Norisring | Wunstorf | Wunstorf | ZWE 1 | ZWE 2 | Salzburgring | Salzburgring | Regio-Ring | Regio-Ring | NÜR 1 16 | NÜR 2 12 ! 30th ! 23 |
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