Palm Springs, CA (Feb. 10, 2020) – This past weekend, ST Racing travelled to Palm Springs with Samantha Tan to shake off a little dust while participating in the SRO Winter Invitational at the Thermal Club race track.

Samantha Tan was excited to be back in her BMW M4 GT4 even though she had just recently returned from Dubai where she competed in a 24-Hour race. Putting in seat time and gaining more on-track experience was the goal this weekend for the young Canadian driver.

This was also the first time ST Racing’s new 2020 car livery was seen in public. The livery is a take-off of Vincent Van Gogh’s art, designed by Toronto artist, George Bucur, who also came up with the vintage look of this year’s driver suits.

The weekend included four practices, two qualifying sessions and two races. Samantha Tan ran in a mixed group of classes regrouping Cup cars, GT2’s, GT3’s, and GT4’s.

On Saturday, the 22-year old was quite pleased with her performance. After qualifying 9th in the GT4 Class, Tan finished 6th.

“The first race went well” said Tan. “I started P9 and had a good start, passing one car. Unfortunately, I was passed by a McLaren shortly after. I stayed with the pack for the first half of the stint, avoiding a few spin outs and climbing up to P5. Near the end, I got caught up in traffic, had to pass three slower GT CARS!!! (haha) and two lapped GT4s. During that time, I got passed by the Compass McLaren so I ended the race with a clean car in P6. Overall, it was a good warm-up race for the start of the season and I will be pushing harder for the second race.”

Sunday’s race was run under caution for most of the duration due to a two-car incident very early in the race, and later when a BMW spun out and hit the wall in the “esses” ending under a red flag.

“Right after the start, I narrowly missed the two cars in Turn 1” said Tan. “I had some fun battles with an Audi, but unfortunately, we were under yellow for most of the race. Then, the Turner BMW hit the wall. I hope the driver’s ok. That incident caused us to end the race under red flag. We probably had about 6 green laps altogether. But, I got some good experience with race craft and I’m warmed up for the start of the SprintX season, next month at COTA.”

Everyone at ST Racing is pumped up for the season opener of the Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Championship where a top driver line-up hits the newly-paved track at the Circuit of the Americas, on March 6-7-8. Stay tuned!

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Samantha Tan’s race fans can follow her on samanthatanracing.com, Instagram (@samanthatanracing) (samanthaatan), Facebook (STRSamantha) and on Twitter (@STR_Samantha).

About ST Racing:

ST Racing was officially launched last October (2016). A Team of highly experienced guys were put together for the 2020 Pirelli GT4 America season. ST Racing drivers, Samantha Tan and Jon Miller (Pro-Am) are driving the #38 BMW M4 GT4, and duo Harry Gottsacker/Nick Wittmer (Pro-Pro) the #28 BMW M4 GT4, in the GT4 America SprintX class. Kenneth Tan is the Team Principal, Ben Distaulo the team manager, Alex Dupré, team engineer, and Nic Jonnson as Samantha Tan’s coach.

About Pirelli GT4 America

The GT4 America championship utilizes GT4 homologated race cars in two popular race formats - Sprint and SprintX. The past season has seen explosive growth in the GT4 category and has resulted in a wide range of cars that are eligible to race in the GT4 America Series, including the BMW M4 GT4, Chevy Camaro GT4.R, Audi R8 LMS GT4, Ford Mustang GT4, and the Mercedes-AMG GT4. Among other GT4-spec cars are the successful Porsche Cayman GT4 CSMR, McLaren 570S GT4, Panoz Avezzano GT4, and many others.

GT4 America offers two regional series integrated within our SprintX Championship -West & East. Each regional series is designed to offer new drivers a localized race program that is cost effective and competitive, with all the benefits of racing in a professional national championship. Each region will consist of five (5) rounds at top-tier circuits in North America in a two-driver, Bronze-rated format.

SRO Motorsports Group: the global leader in GT racing

With more than 25 years’ experience at the forefront of a continuously evolving industry, SRO Motorsports Group is the established international leader in GT racing.

Best known for the development and implementation of the GT3 and GT4 regulations, SRO promotes and organizes championships that embrace professional and amateur competitors. Its portfolio of highly regarded series spans Europe, America and Asia, while its flagship Intercontinental GT Challenge contests events on five different continents.

The 2019 the season will see more than 100 races run under the SRO Motorsports Group banner, highlighted by the prestigious Total 24 Hours of Spa. In addition to promotion and organization, the company operates SRO Race Centre by MMC – a high-level technical center at Circuit Paul Ricard – and provides the ultimate driving opportunities on world-renowned facilities through Curbstone Track Events.

SRO Motorsports Group is chaired by company founder and CEO Stephane Ratel. With offices in London, Paris, Liège, Hong Kong and Austin, its work is facilitated by a dedicated global team of full-time and freelance staff.

Anne Roy | Cell: 514 627-0191 | anne@st-racing.org | www.samanthatanracing.com

SAMANTHA TAN AT WINTER INVITATIONAL PREPARING FOR 2020

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