Samantha Tan adds GTDX bronze cup win to her IMSA VP Racing Sports Car Challenge campaign on home soil
- RACERS
- Jul 14
- 4 min read
Samantha Tan claimed another bronze class victory in the IMSA VP Racing Sports Car Challenge, bouncing back from a challenging qualifying session to narrowly miss out on an overall podium on home soil at Mosport.
Samantha Tan claimed another bronze class victory in the IMSA VP Racing Sports Car Challenge, bouncing back from a challenging qualifying session to narrowly miss out on an overall podium on home soil at Mosport. The second race of the weekend was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions on Sunday.
Tan has had an extremely busy schedule in June; from Mid-Ohio for the third IMSA VP Racing Sports Car round—her first time at the track in several years—where she once again stood on the top step of the bronze podium in Race 2, before she then headed to Europe to compete in the Road to Le Mans, securing a top-five finish at La Sarthe, followed by a class podium at the Nürburgring 24 Hours a week later, driving a Mini Cooper. Tan then fulfilled brand ambassador duties for BMW at the 24 Hours of Spa before returning to North America.
For the fourth round of the IMSA-sanctioned championship, which Tan is contesting as a rookie in the bronze class of the GDX category, she returned to the wheel of her #38 BMW M4 GT3 operated by ST Racing. With little time to prepare for the weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park—her first time at the venue since 2017, when she last raced there in TC America—Tan faced a packed schedule.
Two practice sessions on Friday gave Tan the chance to reacclimate to the fast and flowing Canadian circuit, where the GTDX field posted closely matched lap times. She set a 1:17.895 in FP1, which was fourth overall and fastest among the bronze entries. She nearly matched that pace in FP2, finishing with similar results. Qualifying took place later that day.
In qualifying, Tan recorded a 1:17.396, again placing fourth overall in GTDX and provisional bronze pole. However, on the final lap, Vincent Barletta in the #95 BMW managed to edge ahead, snatching the bronze pole. Tan ended up just nine-tenths off the overall GTDX pole, with the top times covered by under a second. Despite the performance, she was left disappointed and determined to fight back in the races.
Starting fifth in GTDX and second among bronze-class entries, Samantha was targeting recovery from the outset. As the green flag waved, the GT3 field mixed with LMP3 traffic immediately: Tan had a strong getaway and made an aggressive move on Barletta, overtaking him before the end of the first lap to take the bronze class lead.
She began increasing her pace and soon closed the gap to Adelson’s Porsche. By lap 5, she was running just behind him, both cars navigating the fast, narrow track while dealing with lapped traffic. At the same time, Tan pulled away from Barletta, building a margin of over seven seconds—a gap that grew significantly when Barletta was handed a drive-through penalty for contact with a GSX Porsche.
By lap 10, Adelson began finding more pace and started pulling away from Tan. She responded by setting her personal best in Sector 3 and continued improving, clocking a 1:18.1 on lap 14, but the gap to Adelson remained stable.
Drama struck on lap 19 when the second-placed LMP3 car of Oscar Tunjo lost a wheel on the start/finish straight, bringing out a full-course caution with 19 minutes remaining. While this neutralization could have presented Tan with a chance to battle for the overall podium, the #38 ST Racing BMW was caught a lap down due to unfortunate safety car positioning and was unable to rejoin the lead pack before the race resumed with 8 minutes to go.
In clean air, Tan continued to set fast sector times but now had over a minute to make up. Ahead, Muss and Adelson collided while fighting for second overall in GTDX, with Muss receiving a 10-second penalty. However, due to the lack of a pass-around during the caution, Tan couldn't take advantage of the situation.
Despite this, she broke the 1:18 barrier with a personal best lap of 1:17.702 and shaved off a few more tenths in the closing stages. She crossed the line fourth overall and claimed the bronze class victory, making the most of an unlucky situation that ultimately prevented a fight for the overall podium.
Hoping to aim even higher in Race 2, Samantha was instead met with a rainstorm on Sunday just before the scheduled start. After an initial delay and a provisional rescheduling to later in the day, weather conditions ultimately led to the race being cancelled.
Tan scored the full 350 points for her bronze class win in Race 1 at Mosport, bringing her total to 2,360 points after four rounds in her rookie campaign. She now leads the bronze standings ahead of Vincent Barletta and Kyle Washington and sits fourth in the overall GTDX championship.
The next round of the IMSA VP Racing Sports Car Challenge will take place at VIRginia International Raceway from August 22–24.
