“This has not been an easy journey. By its very nature, motorsport is a tough and all too often brutal business that can take its toll on you, physically and mentally. As a young woman climbing the ladder in this predominantly male arena, I’ve faced my fair share of challenges,” says Samantha .

Samantha  started racing at an early age, her major influence being her father. “I got interested in racing because of my dad. I spent a lot of time with him growing up, so his interests had a big influence over me, which sparked my passion for cars and racing. I used to watch Formula One, go karting and attend  track days with him, so I learned to love the feeling of speed at a young age. When I was 14 years old, I attended the Ferrari Driving Experience at Circuit Mont Tremblant in Quebec, Canada, and was the youngest ever participant. At the end of the event, attendees were offered to sit passenger in a Ferrari 458 Challenge race car for a hot lap with a pro driver. Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity. I vividly remember the extremely late braking, intense G-forces and acceleration. I was strapped into a 5-point harness, but being so little, my legs were still flailing around and I had to brace myself by gripping onto the belts. Although some people may find this terrifying, I remember having the biggest smile on my face. It was an incredible, unforgettable experience that ultimately inspired me to seriously pursue a racing career myself. I started racing when I was 16 years old in regional races around the US, and also competed in my first full national series, the Canadian Touring Car Championship, that same year in 2014. I moved to Pirelli World Challenge in 2015 and competed in the TCA Class with Kinetic Motorsports in a Kia Forte, and continued to compete in PWC for the next 6 years. Since then, I’ve been competing with BMW, created our amazing race team, Samantha Tan Racing, and won multiple championships. It’s been one hell of a journey, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!”

She started off her racing career with a Mini Cooper S in the 2014 Canadian Touring Car Championship and moved on to a Kia Forte Koup in the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge. After that she closed in on BMW as her brand for future races. “When we started the race team, it was around the same time as the launch of the BMW M235iR programme. My dad and I have always been BMW enthusiasts, and I already had plans to move up to TC. BMW was the only manufacturer that was supplying factory built race cars for TC and the BMW M235iR was very competitive that year. It was the best option at the time for us. It perfectly aligned with my future goals as I also wanted to make the transition back to RWD race cars.”

 Through the ages, racing has predominantly been gender biased and there are many misconceptions about female drivers. But Samantha has a great outlook on this divide. When we asked her about this, she said, “I get this question a lot, and I always like to start off with saying that one of the reasons why I love racing is because the car doesn’t care what gender or race you are. It only cares about whether you can handle it well.

“I have personally never been told that I couldn’t race because I’m a female. However, the gender discrimination that I, and many others, have experienced presents itself in more subtle ways, such as when we are judged or evaluated solely on our appearances, rather than the elite skill level we compete at. When people in the paddock question why we have been given a ride, or in other words, the opportunity to race. When people get offended by the fact that it’s my name over the door at Samantha Tan Racing. When people whistle at me wearing my driver’s suit. When I’ve been pushed off track, ending both of our races, because they couldn’t deal with getting beaten by a girl.  When people have tried to make me feel like their racial/sexual comments are compliments or that it’s ‘okay’. I can’t count the amount of times people have doubted the fact that I’m a driver, saying things like ‘ but you’re so small, so pretty, so gentle’ or ‘you’re more of a model than a race car driver’. My dad has been asked many times why he allows his daughter to compete in such a dangerous sport, and time and time again, he asks ‘would you question this if she were a boy?’. The fact of the matter is he raised my brother and I the same, as every parent should.

“I recently hosted BMW USA’s International Women’s Day event, and I wanted to share some words from the speech I presented there. ‘This has not been an easy journey.

“But I race because I choose to. Because I yearn to.  Because I aspire to prove that motorsport is no longer the boys club it once was. It’s a battleground that only the hungriest and most dedicated people – men AND women from all walks of life – can compete in nose-to-nose, and come out on top.

Tyres play a crucial role while racing, how do you as a racer manage to keep the race tyres at their optimum performance level?

One of the quintessential skills of a good racing driver is the ability to be at the limit of the tyre everywhere on track. To keep the tyres at their optimum performance level, you have to factor in everything: ambient temperature/track temperature, tyre pressures and degradation, avoiding pickup, heat cycles, throttle application and braking management.

The tyres have to be at the right temperature and pressures to be at their peak performance. This means avoiding the curbing during the outlap when the tyres are cold to prevent damage to the sidewalls and ensuring a proper warm up to bring the tyres up to temperature. As the tyres begin to wear, you have less grip and have to worry more about unnecessary understeer and oversteer, or in other words, not overdriving the car, because it’ll put additional temperature into the tyre and wear it out even faster. Braking progressively also adds additional heat into the tyre.

Ultimately, it’s about balancing the car, keeping it at the limit of adhesion and maximising the grip of the tyre by adapting to track conditions.

Over the years that you’ve raced, have you experienced how different tyres behave on a track and do the changes in the Pirelli tyres make a difference in  the years gone by to the current ones?

I have experienced different tyres and their unique behaviours on track! For example, I have tried both slicks and rains from manufacturers such as Pirelli, Hankook, Michelin and Toyo. They all have their own distinctive characteristics and feel on track, but they also all share something in common: the manufacturers are always working to improve the composition and structure of the tyres. As the cars consistently get faster, the tyre compounds must also improve to match that performance increase.

Starting a racing company while still getting a graduation from college must have been tough. Could you take us through your thought process, the hurdles and the overall vision you have for yourself and the team?

It was extremely difficult balancing school and racing. When I started racing in 2014, I was transitioning from my last year of high school to university. I actually missed my high school graduation because I was competing at the Toronto Indy event in CTCC! I completed my degree in economics at the University of California, Irvine last year while still full-time racing for the past five years. There were many times that I would have to study in the car on the way to the racetrack, or do my homework in between sessions, or finish a race weekend and have to fly out that evening to make a final exam the next morning. I had to find the time to train, travel to race events, go to lectures, finish homework, study for exams etc... It was really tough, but it all came down to good time management, negotiating with my professors and relying on some of my college friends to help me take lecture notes. I definitely still had that college experience with multiple all-nighters, but it’s made me stronger as a person and I’m very proud to have finished the university.

My economics degree has helped my ventures with the race team. Initially, when I was in college, I just focused on my role as a driver instead of a team owner. However, after I graduated, I took a more central role and managed publicity, logistics, sponsorships and my own personal brand. I definitely could not have been as successful without my dad guiding me along the way, and am forever thankful for what he has helped me achieve.

Ultimately, my goal is to race in LeMans and to be the first Asian woman to win there. I hope to bring my amazing team with me, as one of my favourite things about racing is sharing the podium with my racing family!

What has been your biggest career high so far, and what do you have planned for the future in your bucket list?

As a driver, my biggest career high is split between winning the 2021 24H Dubai and winning the 6H Abu Dhabi. I was the first Asian woman to win the 24H Dubai and first woman to win the 6H Abu Dhabi! These were both my first ever pro racing wins, so they mean a lot to me. It was a culmination of all the hard work I had done in the previous years and I’m so proud to have shared it with my own racing team. I can’t thank my teammates, Nick Wittmer, Jon Miller and Chandler Hull, enough for putting their faith in me and helping me develop as a driver.

They played the Canadian national anthem on the podium at Abu Dhabi and raised the Canadian flag behind me as I took my trophy. It almost made me cry, I was so happy!

As a team, I think our career high was winning both the 2019 Pirelli GT4 America SprintX West Driver’s Championship and Team Championship! We were finally given credibility and recognition that we had fought for against established teams that had multiple championships on their records.

Do you have any words of advice for women who think of getting into racing but are too afraid to?

The biggest obstacle in racing is finding the funding. Racing is an extremely expensive sport and it requires a lot of sponsors, because if you don’t have the proper funding, it can be a major challenge. You really have to learn how to market yourself, build your brand, fight for recognition and seize any and every opportunity that you can.

Whenever you try anything new, you’re going to fail a lot of times and you’re going to make mistakes. You have to learn to be okay with that. Failure means that you’re trying. You fail and you eliminate a method that won’t work. From failure, we learn, grow and succeed.

As Joanne Molinaro has said, “It’s so much easier to listen to the voices that are telling you ‘you’re not good enough. You’re not smart enough. You’re not strong enough.’ You might even feel tempted to agree with them, just to shut them up. But just when you feel like giving in to those voices, I want you to remember: you are fierce. You are strong. You are a fighter.” Because success is out there for those who fight for it. (TT)

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Bridgestone’s Potenza Sport EVO has earned two independent test accolades, strengthening the tyre maker’s standing in the ultra-high-performance segment. The double success spans a victory in What Car?’s summer tyre test and a Recommended award from evo.

In What Car?’s evaluation of 11 summer tyres, the Potenza Sport EVO ranked first. Fitted to a Volvo XC60, it drew praise for predictable handling and secure performance in wet and dry conditions, along with communicative steering suited to a premium performance tyre.

The What Car? results also underscored tyre choice’s safety implications. In wet braking, the Bridgestone stopped 7.3 metres shorter than the Goodride competitor. The publication concluded that the Potenza Sport EVO justified its higher price, highlighting the value of investing in quality tyres.

The evo test delivered further recognition. The Potenza Sport EVO finished second overall but secured the Recommended award and was arguably the standout performer across individual disciplines, taking five first-place finishes. It earned top subjective ratings for polished, effortless behaviour, excelled in wet grip, traction and stability and set the fastest handling-course time, becoming the only tyre to break 51 seconds.

Drew Chapman, Consumer Sales Director, Bridgestone UK, said, "To achieve such outstanding results in two highly respected independent tyre tests is a fantastic endorsement of the Potenza Sport EVO and the engineering that has gone into its development. Winning the What Car? test against 10 other competitors, while also securing evo's Recommended Award and five individual test victories, demonstrates the tyre's exceptional breadth of capability. These results reflect exactly what we set out to achieve with the Potenza Sport EVO; delivering outstanding performance, control and confidence in a wide range of driving conditions. It's hugely rewarding to see that recognised by independent experts."

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Citira, a Sweden-based company specialising in circular tyre management, has expanded its UK commercial service network by acquiring G & S Tyres Ltd, a move that also brings a modern retreading facility in the London metropolitan area into the group. The deal advances Citira's push towards a national UK footprint, building on its recent purchase of Redpath Tyres in Scotland and its entry into UK market earlier this year via Tyrefix Group.

G&S's local knowledge, solid reputation and retreading strengths align closely with Citira's circular tyre management model, which covers retreading, rim refurbishment and fleet logistics and is already well established across the Nordics and Poland. The East London site is strategically positioned and employs around 45 people.

A two-generation family firm with more than four decades of service to UK customers, G&S will keep trading under its own name with its existing team. Gary, James and Billy Short will stay involved in the business and take shareholdings in the Citira Group.

Oliver Johnson, Head of UK at Citira, said, “G&S Tyres has earned a strong reputation across the UK through its reliability, service quality and close relationships with the fleets and customers it supports. That reputation provides an excellent foundation for the next stage of growth. Following our acquisition of Redpath Tyres in Scotland, G&S is a further step in our ambition to build a national commercial tyre service network with the best people and businesses in the UK.”

Gary Short, speaking on behalf of the Short family, said, “We are very happy to join a group whose ambitions for the UK align so well with our own. Citira is a great home for G&S and gives us the right platform to support the next generation, spearheaded by James and Billy, as they continue to grow and improve the business.”

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Hankook Tyre UK will exhibit on Stand B40 at RTX Scotland, which returns to Glasgow's SEC on 18–19 November 2026 after a successful 2025 debut. The two-day event brings the road transport industry together for innovation, expertise and networking, and Hankook will showcase its extensive portfolio of Hankook and Laufenn commercial vehicle tyres, designed to meet the evolving demands of today's transport operators.

Bigger than last year, the Glasgow show completes a three-market line-up alongside RTX's flagship Stoneleigh event and its Irish show, bringing the same truck-focused approach to audiences across the UK and Ireland. More than 80 exhibitors, from major truck manufacturers and trailer producers to tyre specialists and workshop suppliers, will take part, with over 7,000 visitors expected to explore developments, attend expert-led seminars, workshops and tech talks, and connect with key professionals.

At the heart of the stand, the SmartFlex range addresses regional and long-distance transport. The AL51 for steering and all-position duties and the DL51 for drive axles deliver up to 20 percent lower rolling resistance on long-haul routes than their predecessors, with consistent performance throughout service life, while the AH51 and DH51 offer dependable grip and braking for regional haulage. All can be regrooved and retreaded to maximise tyre life and cost efficiency. Hankook will also present the 315/80R22.5 Smart Work AM11+ for on- and off-road front-steer operations, the AM15+ all-position tyre, the TH31 all-season trailer tyre, the TH51 with Hidden Groove technology and the Vantra ST AS2 van tyre.

Laufenn, Hankook's associated brand, will display its growing commercial vehicle portfolio, including the Laufenn365 initiative, the LR01 and LR02 for on- and off-road applications, the LR53 drive tyre and the X Fit Van 4S. Drawing on Hankook's development expertise, Laufenn combines value, performance and full retreadability to help cost-conscious fleets manage operating costs and environmental impact. With solutions spanning heavy-duty regional haulage, long-distance transport, mixed-service operations and light commercial vehicles, Hankook's presence lets visitors explore products tailored to their needs and connect directly with the team.

James Misselbrook, UK Truck & Bus National Sales Manager, Hankook Tyre UK, said, “RTX Scotland provides an excellent opportunity to connect with fleets, operators and industry partners, and we're excited to be returning for a second year. The event comes at a significant time for Hankook, as we showcase some of the first 385/65R22.5 trailer tyres produced at our new European TBR manufacturing facility in Rácalmás, Hungary. This major investment underlines our long-term commitment to the European market and reinforces our ability to deliver innovative, high-performance tyre solutions that help fleets maximise efficiency and profitability."

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Pirelli is all set for the winter season with its winter tyre range that is renewed over the past two years. The newly launched Scorpion Winter 3 joins the P Zero Winter 2 for high-performance cars and the Cinturato Winter 3 for saloons and crossovers. The range is available with Pirelli Elect technology for electric vehicles. Independent tests by European organisations have placed Pirelli winter tyres at the front in safety-related areas, while the Cinturato All Season SF3 has recorded four victories and six additional podium finishes.

Winter tyres or suitable equipment are required from 15 November to 15 April. Most winter driving occurs on dry and wet roads. Below 7°C, winter compounds offer more grip than summer compounds, and the tread pattern helps counter aquaplaning and generate traction on snow. Sidewall markings indicate capability: M+S identifies a product for challenging surfaces, while 3PMSF certifies testing in harsh conditions. An appropriate winter driving style includes increased safety distance, avoiding sudden acceleration and reducing brake use in favour of engine braking.

The Cinturato Winter 3 took first place in the 2026 ADAC winter tyre test in size 225/50 R17 against 16 models, earning a highly recommended rating with the best wet score and the highest assessment for driving safety. It won the AvD test in size 225/45 R17 against 15 tyres with a very good rating. It also finished first in the Auto Bild comparison in size 205/55 R16 on a Volkswagen Golf against 14 tyres with an exemplary rating. Podium finishes followed in tests by Auto Express, Auto Bild Allrad and Tyre Reviews, giving six podium finishes in seven tests, including three victories.

The Scorpion Winter 3 debuted with a victory in the alVolante comparison in size 235/60 R18 on an Alfa Romeo Stelvio, ranking first among six winter tyres. Its wet performance, shortest braking distance, fastest lap time and progressive reactions set it apart. It was judged consistent and predictable on snow and balanced on dry roads.

In the annual Auto Bild super comparative test, the P Zero Winter 2 finished on the podium with an exemplary rating, thanks to precise driving behaviour in wet and dry conditions and braking performance on both surfaces. The Cinturato Winter 3, Scorpion Winter 3 and P Zero Winter 2 are available with Pirelli Elect technology on dedicated fitments for Europe's electric vehicle fleet. Elect addresses low rolling resistance for range, acoustic comfort, longer tyre life, grip for immediate torque and a reinforced structure for battery weight.

All-season tyres suit drivers mainly in urban areas covering up to 20,000 km per year without frequent heavy snowfall. Higher mileage, regular mountain travel or high-performance cars generally call for winter tyres. The Cinturato All Season SF3 carries the 3PMSF marking and has four victories in comparisons by Auto Zeitung, Reifentester, Auto Express and Que Choisir, plus six additional podium finishes. The new Scorpion All Season SF3 extends the approach to SUVs.

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