GTWC America: Samantha Tan extends championship lead with double podium finish at VIR

Samantha Tan and Neil Verhagen continued their impressive season in GT World Challenge America by claiming two runner-up finishes in the Pro/Am class at Virginia International Raceway and extended their championship lead in a campaign which has seen them stand on the class podium in all eight races to date.

Samantha Tan, ST Racing BMW M4 GT3, GT World Challenge America, VIR 2024 — Photo credits: Fabian Lagunas / SRO

Samantha Tan and Neil Verhagen continued their impressive season in GT World Challenge America by claiming two runner-up finishes in the Pro/Am class at Virginia International Raceway. The ST Racing duo extended their championship lead in a campaign which has seen them stand on the class podium in all eight races to date.

Overcoming adversity in race one, Verhagen narrowly missed out on claiming race victory in the closing stages, before a strong defensive drive from Tan in race two ensured the pair left Virginia with another second place result.

Moving into the second half of the GT World Challenge America season, Tan and teammate Neil Verhagen have been the duo to beat in the Pro/Am class. The ST Racing pair have claimed class victory in three out of the first six races, while standing on the overall podium in four races, more than any other Pro/Am team. As a result, Tan and Verhagen held an 18 point lead atop the Pro/Am standings ahead of nearest challengers George Kurtz and Colin Braun in their CrowdStrike Racing by Riley Motorsport Mercedes AMG GT3.

Virginia International Raceway was the venue at which Tan and Verhagen began their partnership last season, scoring a pair of second-place finishes within class. Therefore, building upon these fond memories while putting into practice the knowledge and experienced gained from the previous 12 months would be vital to continuing the momentum they had built up.

The first practice session took place on Saturday morning and the ST Racing duo completed 25 laps. Setting the eighth fastest time in the Pro-Am class, with Samantha doing the majority of running, it was a productive opening session. Further progress was made in the second session with both Tan and Verhagen completing valuable running as the ST Racing duo once again ended the session in eighth within Pro-Am.

Conditions were challenging for qualifying on Saturday morning with overnight rain leading to a partially damp track. Although the racing line was dry and all drivers were on slick tyres, it was treacherous off-line. Samantha took part in the first qualifying session and did a nice job to set the third fastest time in the Pro-Am class, setting the second fastest time among the Am classified drivers. Verhagen drove in the second session and qualified fourth in Pro/Am, sixth in the overall classification.

Further rain had fallen prior to race one, with track conditions similar to those in qualifying. A clear dry line had formed on the circuit but there were damp patches off-line, while the grass was extremely wet. Samantha was behind the wheel to start the race and enjoyed an excellent opening lap, moving ahead of Justin Rothberg to claim second place in Pro/Am. This was an important pass with Tan now running as the highest placed amateur graded driver.

The ST Racing driver was quickly extending her margin over Rothberg, pulling out a gap of two seconds after three laps. Her momentum was then halted on lap six as the safety car was deployed for Scott Smithson who was stuck in the wet grass. The race restarted for just half a lap before Smithson had impacted the barriers, with a lengthy clear-up required by the marshals.

On lap 12, the green flag was displayed and Tan made an excellent restart as she immediately pulled out a gap over Rothberg. Setting consecutive personal best times on laps 13 and 14, this allowed her to further extend the margin as the pit window approached. However, a third safety car was required on lap 16 when Elias Sabo spun and thus Samantha had completed her final full lap under green flag conditions. As the racing resumed once more, Tan pitted to hand over to Neil Verhagen from second place in the Pro/Am class.

Despite the leading Pro/Am class contenders pitting on the same lap, ST Racing were able to retain their strong track position with a good pitstop from the crew. Verhagen rejoined in second position but was less than half a second ahead of Robby Foley while running directly behind the Pro class machine of Zach Veach.

As Verhagen battled with Foley early in his stint, the Turner Motorsport driver made a move to the inside into turn one and this led to the two BMW M4 GT3 machines running side-by-side. Verhagen fought back and clipped the inside kerb while attempting to reclaim second position and made contact with Foley which sent him into the barriers.

The ST Racing machine was received little damage, however the incident caused a further safety car period with Verhagen moving into the Pro/Am class lead with Philip Ellis making his mandatory stop to hand over to teammate Jeff Burton.

The race restarted on lap 30 with Verhagen assessed a drive through penalty for incident responsibility following the contact with Foley. The ST Racing team then caught a fortunate break as the safety car was deployed for the fifth time as Verhagen rejoined, allowing him to catch the rear of the field. The attrition rate in the Pro/Am class was particularly high and this meant that Neil ran second in class after his penalty, sixth in the overall classification.

The final restart took place with eight minutes remaining and although the lapped car of Adam Carroll was between Verhagen and class leader Tom Sargent, there was still time to challenge for the race victory. The ST Racing car was showing great pace in the closing stages and this helped Verhagen overtake Carroll before mounting a late challenge on the GMG Racing machine.

Neil got within a quarter of a second of his rival but just ran out of time to make a move for the race victory. Nonetheless, it was an excellent recovery from Verhagen who backed up a great start from Tan to bank vital championship points for a second-place finish in the Pro/Am class.

Race two of the weekend took place on Sunday with fully dry conditions at Virginia International Raceway. Verhagen took the start and made a clean getaway as the ST Racing driver held his position on the opening lap while fending off the challenge posed by Aaron Povoledo.

The early stages of the race were relatively quiet with equidistant margins among the Pro/Am class leaders. Verhagen was chasing Tom Sargent and the ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 was showing strength in the middle sector as he kept in close order with the GMG Racing Porsche 992 GT3 R.

By lap 18, Verhagen was still less than four seconds away from the lead in the Pro/Am class which underlined the close competition. Shortly before the pit window opened, Povoledo stopped out on circuit and this led to the safety car being deployed. As a result, all teams, with the exception of Turner Motorsport, pitted immediately during the neutralisation period with Samantha getting behind the wheel of the ST Racing machine.

After Robby Foley had handed over to Justin Rothberg a lap later, the pit cycle was complete with Tan sitting sixth overall, third in the Pro/Am class. When the race resumed, both Bill Auberlen and Philip Ellis was able to move ahead, with Ellis quickly taking the Pro/Am lead with the contrary strategy for Regulator Racing. Luca Mars also moved ahead in his Pro class Acura NSX GT3 with Tan tucking in right behind the Racers Edge Motorsport machine.

This proved to be a smart play as Samantha was able to follow Mars through as he overtook Scott Smithson, elevating Tan back into a provisional Pro/Am podium position.

Kyle Washington was now the car ahead, however Tan was soon into second with the GMG Racing machine assessed a drive-through penalty for a pit lane protocol violation.

Now running second in class, Samantha was holding down second position which was the highest realistic finish with Ellis behind the wheel of the Regulator Racing machine. Tan pushed hard in order to build a margin over Smithson, however the DXDT Racing driver was remaining in close contention.

The gap fluctuated at around one second for the majority of the stint, however on lap 39 Smithson had cut the deficit to just half a second. Tan, Smithson and Rothberg was now covered by less than one second as they fought for the two remaining steps on the podium. Rothberg was mounting a late challenge on Smithson and this allowed Tan to build a two second margin in the closing stages. Taking the checkered flag sixth overall, second in Pro/Am, Tan and Verhagen collected valuable points to extend their championship lead.

It was a consistent weekend of racing for the ST Racing duo at Virginia International Raceway as Tan and Verhagen clinched a pair of runner-up finishes in the Pro/Am class. An excellent recovery in race one was followed by a strong run in race two with the team maintaining their 100% Pro/Am podium record in 2024.

Aiming to extend their championship lead further, the next round of GT World Challenge America takes place at Road America on the weekend of August 17th/18th.