Samantha Tan will be entering her fourth 24 Hours of Dubai, as she joins British team Century Motorsport in a BMW M4 GT3.
Samantha Tan is set to return to the 24 Hours of Dubai, as the Canadian sports car racer will join British team Century Motorsport for the upcoming edition of the endurance race that traditionally opens the motorsport calendar year.
The 26 year old driver will team up with Michael Johnston, Chris Salked and a yet to be confirmed driver at the wheel of the team's BMW M4 GT3. Having shared a BMW M4 GT4 in British GT, Johnston and Salked claimed the GT4 ProAm class title in 2023 British GT and will be stepping up for the first time to GT3 machinery at Dubai. Samantha's experience of both the event and the M4 GT3 will therefore be a crucial asset for the team.
At her fourth participation at the 24 Hours of Dubai, Tan will be entering the race for the second time in a GT3 class. After racing primarily in North America since 2017, Samantha achieved increasing success on the SRO platform - in the TC class of Pirelli World Challenge first, before competing the GT4 America West and SprintX categories from 2018 to 2020. With her own Samantha Tan Racing team, she progressed from the MINI Cooper S JCW to the BMW M235iR and then the BMW M4 GT4.
With that car, Tan entered her first 24 Hours of Dubai in 2020 - in an edition when the Canadian squad had shown great potential but that ended prematurely after heavy rainfall.
She returned in 2021 - and claimed her first major international class victory - in a season that would crown her and her ST Racing squad both GT4 and overall champions in the Creventic 24H Series following a stellar campaign in her first international effort.
Tan moved to GT3 racing in 2022 and was the first customer team to receive the brand new BMW car globally. In March, she famously took victory at the 12 Hours of Mugello, gaining the first worldwide victory for the new BMW M4 GT3.
In the last two years, she has established herself among the highest ranks of GT3 competitions, with participations in both GT World Challenge Europe and America.
In the American series, Tan has secured five podiums and her first victory at Elkhart Lake, finishing fourth in the ProAm class aboard the BMW M4 GT3. After a first appearance in the European series at the 2022 24H of Spa, she returned for a full Endurance Cup campaign in 2023 - piloting the ST Racing by Rinaldi Ferrari. She was third in the championship standings in the ProAm class, with three podiums and a win to her name.
A BMW Motorsport Brand Ambassador, Samantha Tan will now be tackling her fourth Dubai 24H, for the first time with Century Motorsport. The overall-winning team in British GT will be entering three cars in the race, two in GT3 and one in GT4.
The race is the second round of the 2023-24 Middle East Trophy by Creventic after the 12H of Kuwait, and will take place at the 5.390 km Dubai Autodrome on the 13th-14th of January.