Dan Eagling

In the 2024 Masters Historic Festival at Brands Hatch, Dan Eagling shocked the Masters Gentlemen Drivers fraternity by taking outright victory in Mark Halstead’s puny but punchy Ginetta G4R, having already snatched several class wins with the car in the years before. Later in the year at Donington Park, he also brought out a nippy Royale RP17 sportscar, in which he took pole before its gearbox broke while leading. Now he has stepped into a Fittipaldi F8 Formula One car for his next challenge. What’s the story behind this mercurial former BRDC McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year finalist? We spoke to Dan ahead of the 2025 Grand Prix de France Historique at Paul Ricard, just days before he would produce a shock debut win in his second-ever historic Formula One race.

So what got you started in historic motor racing?

DE: Historic motorsport started probably 15 years ago for me. A friend of mine had a Lotus Elan and wanted it running. I had been running more modern race cars, working with other teams and trying to forge a race career for a short period of time. We got involved with him and I just enjoyed the historic paddocks. There’s more engineering, more work that you can do. It’s not just bolting on a part. The cars are all individual, so it appealed to me. We set up our own little race prep business and it just developed from there – running Formula 2 cars, sportscars, all sorts of different things.

But your life in motorsport had started long before that.

DE: I’ve always been involved in motorsport. My dad raced when I was young, so I was brought up around circuits. When I finished school, I knew I wanted to be involved in racing. Fortunately, around where we were, up in Norfolk, there were a lot of race teams. I got an opportunity to work with Supernova, a Formula 3000 team. I worked my way up to be a number one mechanic in the early 2000s and worked with some really interesting people like Juan Pablo Montoya, Antonio Pizzonia, and Jason Watt. I learned everything about the industry there, because you’re working with a professional team, but it’s still a small team in which everyone has to be involved in everything.

When did the actual driving start?

DE: I was a bit late. When I was 20, 21, I’d been doing a few races in between my work commitments. But I started to win a few and thought, maybe I should have a go. I didn’t really have any backing, but my dad was running some cars, so it was easy to back onto the championships he was involved in. We built a car for me in the Clubmans Cup and won the championship! Then I got nominated to be a BRDC McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year finalist in 2002, basically having spent £10,000 on my entire season… It was a crazy opportunity to get from my background to that point. It was that little springboard to say, okay, maybe we can try and do a bit more. But we always struggled with budgets. We went down the GT route where we ended up running our own car and then bringing in a second driver with the budget. So I was still working on the car while driving. Which is all a good experience but it was fairly full-on! We did that for a couple of years and had the odd result. It led to me getting the odd drive here and there but again with little backing, so it was only ever a race here, a race there. We did a couple of seasons in the Le Mans Series and then I met a guy who wanted to do the Le Mans Series with a Ferrari 430 that was just new that year. We did a full season with a proper operation in 2006 – that was a really good year. But then we had the credit crunch and all the backing I had just went. At that point I thought I needed to grow up a bit and think more business-minded rather than forging down a path of year on year trying and finding money and still struggle. So that’s when we set up Lifetime Racing, our own business in historics.

And then, at some moment, you took Masters Gentlemen Drivers by storm in that Ginetta.

DE: I haven’t really raced that much whilst running the business because we’re focused on preparing cars for the owners. But I test them quite a lot, so I’ve been lucky enough to drive about 100 different historic cars over the years. Very rarely did I race, but Mark Halstead, who has quite a nice collection, was really keen on his G4R project to work. With this one, I didn’t have any involvement in building the car – I just test and race it for him, in a relationship that we built up over probably ten years. So the Ginetta maybe comes out only once or twice a year, and the Royale that I’ve occasionally raced with Masters is also owned by him – we built that car and I’ve got that at my workshop.

What was your first Masters event?

DE: I think that was the Silverstone Festival with the Ginetta, three years ago. I shared the car with Mark. We qualified really well but he had a difficult start to the race. Then we had an issue with the pitstop, so we had to fight our way back through. We did the Silverstone Festival a few times after that, and you wouldn’t think that we ought to be anywhere near there, as it’s difficult to carry a lap time when you’re around the big cars. Obviously the Ginetta has its advantages in the high-speed corners, so we need to carry a lot of speed. The bigger cars can’t do that, so they’re quite often at the apex in the middle of the corner. You either have to go wide or go around them. At Silverstone you have the option to take a different line and try and keep that momentum going, so actually Brands is a lot harder. Because if a big Cobra is parked on the apex, there’s not a lot you can do without it being a bit of a risky move…

And then you took that phenomenal win at Brands.

DE: Yeah, that was a special race and a good box to tick! It was the goal for Mark, he really wanted to win one outright. He preferred the Silverstone Festival but we needed the weather for that to help. So I think fourth overall and winning the CLP class is about as good as we can get without a little bit of rain. But we thought that at Brands or Donington there’s a possibility to do it. It wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be, as in all fairness the Ginetta’s pace relative to an Elan is a bit less at Brands than at Silverstone. You know, I’m surprised there’s not more people who want to run them because they are a good car.

And now it’s a big change up to the Fittipaldi.

DE: I’ve driven Formula 2 cars quite a bit – not really raced them, but tested them – but yeah, it’s still a bit of a jump. I haven’t raced at Ricard for 20 years! But it should be good.

Are you in it to win it, or is it ultimately just for fun?

DE: It’d be difficult to say we’re not in it to win it! But it has to be enjoyable with everyone. Anthony Hancock who owns the Fittipaldi wants us to do well with it, ideally, but you know, everyone is competitive on this grid. We’d like to be in the front end but especially at the start of the year it’s difficult to put any sort of expectation down.

Your best day in historic motor racing?

DE: In historics, I would certainly say the Ginetta win at Brands, because we’ve been working to that goal. And my first race in the Le Mans Series at Spa was pretty special, but I think anything at Spa is special! In my early days of racing, I can remember a couple of laps that you just thought, yeah, that was really special – like Mallory Park in the Clubmans going flat out from the hairpin back to the hairpin. But certainly in historics the Ginetta wins!

And your worst day?

DE: 80% of them are the worst days! There’s a lot more disappointment in motorsport than achievement, isn’t it? But then by Monday morning, it’s all gone and you’re focused on getting it fixed, getting sorted, moving on, improving things.

The best car you’ve ever driven?

DE: I tested a Lister Storm for three days at Estoril in the early 2000s. Not the ultimate race machine, but it was a beast of a car that sticks in my mind. The 430 was pretty special as well, but now I think the Fittipaldi would probably have to go up there.

And your worst car?

DE: The Marcos Mantis GT2 car that we ran in British GT in 2002 – which I shouldn’t say because we were running it ourselves! But it was a very agricultural brute of a car, really. On its day, we could get some performance out of it, but it was hard work, both on the engineering side and the driving side. It was a heavy, not particularly well thought out take on a modification from a road car to a GT car. But I do have fond memories of it – because what we achieved with it was quite a lot. At the same time, it did test us at every opportunity.

Your favourite circuit?

DE: I guess a lot of people say that probably – but yeah, Spa. It’s just everything about Spa. In fact, it’s one of the few circuits I don’t mind being out on if I’m not driving because of the ambience there. And in my early career I probably raced more at Spa than I was in the UK!

Why doesn’t Masters go to…

DE: Maybe Dijon, that’s a good little track. The undulation, the blind corners, I think it has a lot. And it’s a difficult track to get the best out of. Definitely harder than it looks, and I think you can get some exciting racing.

Who’s the rival that you fear or respect the most?

DE: Because I don’t race that often, it’s a difficult one. To be honest, I admire and respect any of the guys who are driving their cars to the best of their abilities, with care and detail. I’m quite keen on seeing people being respectful of the cars and driving them at a high level but also considering what the car is. I’m not so keen on seeing people drive them like they would modern machinery.

And who’s your best mate in the paddock?

DE: I’m friendly with lots, but I would have to say Ron Maydon. I hope he is going to carry on racing. As a former Ginetta driver himself, he’s had quite a lot of interest in what we’ve been doing with the Ginetta. He’s always been quite excited to see what its ultimate potential is.