Samantha Tan

Samantha Tan is a Chinese-Canadian race car driver, team owner, and the first Asian female to win the 24 Hours of Dubai, rewriting what’s possible for women and minorities in a sport that’s been stubbornly resistant to both.

EARLY YEARS

Born August 9, 1997, in Toronto, Canada, Samantha Tan grew up with cars in her blood—or at least, in her family’s garage. Her father introduced her to racing, and it stuck. “Cars and racing are a hobby for my dad, and he’s living vicariously through me,” she once said, which is both sweet and the most relatable father-daughter dynamic in motorsports.[4] He’s her biggest influence, the person who handed her the keys—literally—when she was just 12 years old. She had to sit on a pillow to see over the steering wheel, but she could drive. By 14, she was the youngest driver ever to attend the Ferrari Driving Experience at Quebec’s Le Circuit-Mont Tremblant, lapping grown men in Maranello red.[4]

Toronto shaped her early years, but her racing career would eventually pull her across borders. She graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 2020 with a degree in Economics—because apparently, being fast on track wasn’t enough; she also needed to understand supply, demand, and how to run a business.[2][4] That degree would come in handy sooner than most college grads could imagine.

OTHER INTERESTS

Tan’s life outside the cockpit is refreshingly low-key. She works out at the gym to stay sharp physically, because racing at the level she does requires more than just fast reflexes—it demands endurance, core strength, and the ability to withstand G-forces that would make most people nauseous.[4] Beyond that, her “other interest” is essentially her full-time job: she’s the owner of ST Racing, the team she founded in 2017.[2][3] It’s not a side hustle. It’s a business, and she’s running it while also being one of its star drivers. That takes a particular kind of ambition—and probably a very good calendar app.

EARLY SUCCESS

Tan started racing at 16, entering the National Autosport Association at Virginia International Raceway in 2014.[2] She didn’t ease into it. Right after getting her driver’s license, she was competing in regional races in a 1991 Honda Civic while juggling classes at UC Irvine.[2] It was scrappy, unglamorous, and exactly the kind of proving ground that builds serious racers. By 2015, she made her professional debut in the Pirelli World Challenge.[1] She also took a Mini Cooper to a fifth-place finish in the Canadian Touring Car Championship—a solid result that signaled she wasn’t just fast; she was consistent.[4]

Her first podium came at Circuit of the Americas in Texas, where she finished second in the GT4 driver championship.[4] It was also notable because she was one of only two women leading the race that day, alongside Aurora Strauss. That kind of representation still matters, because it’s still rare. By 2017, Tan had founded ST Racing and was running a BMW M235iR in TC America.[3] She was 20 years old. Most people that age are figuring out their major. She was running a race team.

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

• 2014: Youngest driver to attend Ferrari Driving Experience at Le Circuit-Mont Tremblant, age 14[4].
• 2015: Professional racing debut in Pirelli World Challenge[1].
• 2019–2020: Back-to-back Pirelli GT4 America SprintX team championships in W and Silver classes with ST Racing[2].
• 2020: Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Silver Class Team Competition win; teammates finished 2nd and 3rd in Driver’s Championship[3][5].
• 2021: 24H GT Series champion[1].
• 2021: First Canadian team to win the 24 Hours of Dubai; first Asian female winner of the race (ST Racing)[2].
• 2021: First woman to win the 6 Hours of Abu Dhabi (one month after Dubai)[2].
• 2022: BMW’s first female person of color GT3 team owner; ST Racing becomes the only team globally with two BMW M4 GT3s at their debut race, the 24 Hours of Dubai[2].
• Brand ambassador for BMW M Motorsport and Olay[1][6].

INSPIRATIONS

Tan credits her father as her biggest influence, the person who sparked her love for cars and racing.[2] Beyond that, she’s been racing alongside the Wittmer family since 2014, building a long-term partnership that’s helped shape her career.[2][3] Her teammates—Nick Wittmer, Jon Miller, Harry Gottsacker—have been part of ST Racing’s success, racking up 14 podium finishes together and cracking the top ten in the 2020 BMW Sports Trophy Team Competition.[3] It’s a tight-knit operation, and that loyalty and continuity have been central to her rise.

REPUTATION

Tan is widely regarded as a trailblazer, and not in the feel-good, participation-trophy sense. She’s breaking actual ground. Noah Stein, a friend and manager of the UCI Anteater Formula Racing team, put it plainly: “Samantha is making a name for herself as a woman in racing, which is still very uncommon. She’s very modest, and she works hard so that her driving talent on the track speaks for itself.”[4] That’s the reputation she’s built: quiet, consistent, fast. She doesn’t need to shout. Her results do the talking.

The media has called her “lightning fast” and “one of the fastest and youngest women in her racing class,” framing her as both a role model and an international competitor.[1][4] Her wins in Dubai and Abu Dhabi weren’t just milestones for her—they were proof that women and people of color can lead, win, and own teams at the highest levels of endurance racing. As the first female person of color to own a BMW GT3 team, she’s not just participating in the sport. She’s reshaping it.[2]

Her racing philosophy is pragmatic and mature: “Racing is a balance between risk and restraint: knowing when to push and when to protect what’s at stake.”[1] She’s not reckless. She’s strategic. In her first solo IMSA season, she said it was “one of the most challenging years of my career, but also one of the most rewarding because I’ve had to trust myself fully in a way I never have before.”[1] That self-reliance, paired with her team-first mentality at ST Racing, makes her a rare combination: a driver who can lead from the cockpit and the pit wall.

FUTURE GOALS/PLANS

Tan is currently competing in the Michelin Pilot Challenge with Random Vandals Racing.[7] But her ambitions stretch far beyond North America. She’s stated her goal is to win championships in both IMSA and the GT World Challenge Europe, and she’s eyeing a return to the Nürburgring to turn that second-place finish into a win.[1] And then there’s the big one: “Le Mans remains the dream. It’s the race that represents not just personal victory, but the culmination of every risk, sacrifice, and leap of faith.”[1]

That’s the thing about Samantha Tan. She’s already done what most drivers only dream of—won in Dubai, conquered Abu Dhabi, built a team, earned factory support from BMW. But she’s not done. Not even close. Le Mans is out there, and she’s going after it.

References:

[1] Meet Samantha Tan: The Race Car Driver
[2] Samantha Tan – AAPI Victory Alliance
[3] Samantha Tan – The Isis Nicole Magazine
[4] Samantha Tan – UCI School of Social Sciences Magazine
[5] Samantha Tan – TOGETHXR
[6] Samantha Tan Interview – Goldhouse YouTube
[7] Samantha Tan – Wikipedia