Samantha Tan Racing enjoyed another successful weekend with BMW’s latest generation M4 GT4 this past weekend at the Nürburgring, securing a class win in the hotly-contested ‘SP8T’ category.
A guest entrant for round three of this year’s Nürburgring Langstrecken Serie, the ST Racing BMW, operated by The Netherlands’ Bas Koeten Racing, ran faultlessly across the four-hour event to take victory. In a heartening performance, the No. 158 G82 M4, which completed 26 laps of the notoriously complex, 24.358km ‘Länge’ configuration, finished nearly three and a half minutes clear of its nearest rival.
Samantha Tan, team co-owner/driver: “We won at NLS3! P1 in the SP8T class at Nürburgring with Jon Miller. It was our first race back at the Ring this year, and my first time in a GT4 there! I had a lot to learn in a short period of time. Thankfully, Jon was an amazing teacher in helping me get up to speed quickly. We had mixed conditions all weekend, as per usual at the Green Hell, with pouring rain during practice and fog in the morning on Saturday’s race day, which delayed us three hours. We qualified P5 but brought it home on the top step. Our partner team, Bas Koeten Racing, gave us a great car and we slowly clawed our way up to first place throughout the four-hour race. There truly is no other place in the world like this track, and I had an absolute blast flying through the trees, reaching almost 290kph down to Tiergarten, and jumping the car in Pflanzgarten over the course of the weekend. Can’t wait to come back!”
Kenneth Tan, team co-owner: “I have always been in awe of this venerable race track they call the Green Hell. I initially was able to test my mettle on this ultra challenging track back in 2012, when I took delivery of a brand new BMW 1M from The Welt and did 25 laps over two days on the Nordschleife. I had just purchased the 1M with the intention of one day being able to hand it down to my daughter Samantha. It has been her daily driver since she got her driver’s license at age 15 and I know she loves the car. How appropriate is it now that Samantha and Jon won the GT4 class in the Nordschleife against a very competitive field. I feel so proud for our team and especially for Samantha. We have come so far. It was also very encouraging to watch the effort put together by the team that resulted in this win. It shows that we have gelled together over the years working together. A big thank you to our BMW European race partner Bas Koeten Racing for preparing the car and their crew as well as our resident crew chief Mark and engineer Tom. We carry this momentum to the GT4 World Challenge at the Spa24 next week. More excitement coming soon!“
Having started fifth in class, and 51st overall in the 110-car field, Samantha, driving alongside long-time teammate Jon Miller, had already moved into the top-four in class after the opening lap, and onto the fringes of the overall top-30 after the second. A dazzling stint from Jon, whose Nordschleife experience proved invaluable across the weekend, meant the ST Racing BMW was well into the top-20 and into the SP8T class lead when Jon made the second pit stop on Lap 15. After two final controlled stints from both Samantha and Jon, the No. 158 BMW had moved its way up to 21st overall – 30 spots ahead of its grid position – and spent almost half of the race in the SP8T lead en-route to a deserved class win.
Jon Miller, driver / STR38 Motorsports team manager: “NLS3 was a great result for the team and another great step forward in Samantha’s development at the Nürburgring. The GT4 M4 was a blast to drive in SP8T trim, with more power and less weight than what we’re used to with standard GT4 BoP. We’re thrilled to get the class victory and top-20 overall.”
This is the second prosperous weekend with BMW’s ‘G82’ M4 GT4 BMW for Samantha Tan. Back in April, the young Canadian came away with second- and fifth-place finishes in her first weekend aboard BMW’s second-generation M4 GT4 in a one-off run with GT America at Long Beach. The result also marks the second class win at the Nürburgring for Samantha, who took ‘BMW 240i’ victory at round six of last year’s NLS, once again alongside Jon Miller.
The ADAC Westfalenfahrt was the first of two fly-away races for ST Racing in successive weekends, as the Canadian team is also set to contest next weekend’s GT4 European Series event at Spa-Francorchamps.
- By Service Presse
