“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)

Eurogrip Tyres, the leading tyre manufacturer in India, showcased its premium two-wheeler tyres at the 17th edition of Feria 2 Ruedas (F2R) International Motorcycle exhibition held at Plaza Mayor, Medellin, Colombia. The dates of this high-profile business event in South America's two-wheeler sector are 15–18 May 2025.

For more than 17 years, the Feria de las 2 Ruedas (F2R) has been the leading motorcycle industry event in Latin America. The expo, which takes place every year in Medellín, Colombia, is a vibrant venue for commerce, innovation and growth in the motorcycling sector. Additionally, it gives aficionados the chance to investigate the most recent developments and trends in the industry. The company showcased its premium lineup at exhibit N24 in the Tented Pavillion, which included a range of sport touring, off-road and trail tyres. High-performance versions including the Roadhound, Protorq Extreme, Trailhound STR, Climber, Bee Connect, Terrabite DB+ and Badhshah LX were on display.

P Madhavan, Executive Vice-President – Marketing & Sales, TVS Srichakra Ltd, said, “Eurogrip is focused to deliver innovative products for the global markets. Latin America is a priority market for us, and F2R Expo is a promising platform to engage with our target audience. We are looking forward to interesting business opportunities arising from this expo. Such specialised industry tradeshows add exceptional value to our quest in becoming a leading global tyre brand delivering world class tyre technology.”

Denka Company Limited announced it would record an extraordinary loss of approximately 16.1 billion yen (£85.8 million) as an impairment on manufacturing facilities at its US subsidiary. It will indefinitely suspend chloroprene rubber production at the Louisiana plant.

The Japanese chemical manufacturer, which holds a 70 percent stake in Denka Performance Elastomer LLC (DPE), cited mounting operational challenges, including unexpectedly high costs for pollution control equipment and declining production volumes at the American facility.

“DPE has faced significant cost, production and other challenges at its facility in the United States,” the company said in a statement. “Rising costs are attributable to, among other factors, identification, design, purchase, installation, and operation of pollution control equipment to reduce chloroprene emissions that DPE did not anticipate being required when it acquired the facility from E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company.”

The subsidiary was established in December 2014 and acquired the chloroprene rubber business from DuPont in November 2015. The Louisiana facility was intended to serve as a second manufacturing site in North America, complementing Denka’s Omi Plant in Itoigawa, Niigata, Japan.

However, according to the company statement, DPE has struggled with multiple operational issues, including “rising energy costs and a shortage of qualified staff necessary to operate new pollution control equipment and implement other emission reduction measures. “

Production volumes have declined partly due to “operational restrictions arising from the pollution reduction measures and unscheduled plant outages associated with supply chain disruptions and severe weather events,” Denka said.

The company noted that these challenges, combined with changes in the global economic environment for chloroprene rubber, have pressured profitability, making near-term improvement difficult.

Denka confirmed that DPE employs 250 people as of December 2024 and will not restart its chloroprene rubber manufacturing facilities following a regular maintenance shutdown. Instead, “all options for the business, including a potential sale of the business or its assets, will be considered,” the statement said.

The company emphasised that “no decision regarding a permanent closure of the facility has been made at this time.”

Customers will continue to be supplied from current inventories and production at the company’s Omi Plant in Japan.

DPE is 70 percent owned by Denka USA LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Denka Company Limited, and 30 percent by Diana Elastomers, Inc., a subsidiary of Mitsui & Co., Ltd.

Yokohama Rubber reported a 56.9 percent year-on-year decline in profit attributable to owners for the first quarter of 2025, despite posting a 9.0 percent increase in sales revenue.

The Japanese tyre maker recorded a profit of 8.53 billion yen for the three months ended 31 March, down from 19.8 billion yen in the same period last year. Business profit fell 3.2 percent to 24.07 billion yen, while sales revenue rose to 275.12 billion yen.

The company maintained its full-year forecast, projecting an 11.4 percent increase in sales revenue to 1.22 trillion yen and an 8.8 percent rise in profit to 81.5 billion yen for the fiscal year ending 31 December 2025.

Yokohama Rubber attributed the profit decline to one-time costs related to its February acquisition of Goodyear’s off-the-road (OTR) tyre business, which it purchased for approximately 143 billion yen.

“Profit from existing businesses was strong,” the company said in its earnings statement. “In addition to increased sales volume for the company’s consumer tyres, mainly in overseas markets, and continued expansion of sales of high-value-added ADVAN, GEOLANDAR, and Winter tyres as well as high-inch tyres, profit was boosted by the MB segment’s MIX improvements and structural reforms.”

The tyre segment, which accounts for 91percent of the group’s consolidated sales revenue, saw a 10.4 percent increase in sales to 250.32 billion yen. Original equipment tyre sales were higher year-on-year, driven by “strong sales in Japan of vehicle models equipped with YOKOHAMA tyres and expansion of shipments for Chinese automakers’ new energy vehicles,” the company said.

Replacement tyre sales also increased, supported by higher sales of summer and winter tyres in Japan, increased sales of high-inch tyres in Europe, and stepped-up sales efforts in Asia.

The MB (Multiple Businesses) segment, which represents 8.4 percent of total sales, experienced a 3.2 percent revenue decline to 23.02 billion yen. This was attributed to lower demand from construction machinery makers in Japan and automakers in North America.

The company described an “upbeat” business sentiment in Japan for the quarter, noting that “a steady recovery in inbound demand and increasing orders for construction and logistics projects compensated for weak consumption by domestic households curbing spending in response to rising prices of consumer goods.”

Overseas, the company observed rising inflation concerns weighing on consumer spending in the United States, while in Europe, “manufacturing industries are rebounding and corporate business sentiment is improving.” In China, personal consumption was boosted by the Spring Festival holiday, but high US tariffs “reduced China’s exports and created uncertainty about the future that is weakening industrial activity.”

Swedish speciality chemicals firm Nynas reported solid financial results for 2024, posting an Adjusted EBITDA of 1,333 million Swedish kronor, marginally higher than the 1,316 million kronor recorded in 2023.

The company, which specialises in naphthenic speciality oils and bitumen products, attributed its performance to operational efficiency and commercial success in its niche markets.

“We are delighted with the progress made during 2024, evidencing our right-sized cost base and a more targeted commercial and manufacturing footprint. We have redefined our strategic direction, positioning Nynas as a speciality chemicals company, enabling the energy transition and setting our course for 2035,” Nynas CEO Eric Gosse said in a statement.

The firm highlighted strong cash generation from operations, which it said would support planned investments and longer-term growth initiatives. Nynas also mentioned the ongoing transformation of its Harburg site with plans to monetise the asset eventually.

All three of the company’s production facilities maintained high operational reliability between 95 percent and 99 percent. The Nynäshamn refinery achieved a notable milestone: in May 2024, it set a new monthly production record for naphthenic speciality oils at 42,000 tonnes.

Strategic pivot towards sustainability

Nynas outlined a strategic shift focused on higher-margin speciality materials with sustainable characteristics. The company aims to strengthen its position in European markets through innovation and sustainability initiatives.

“Nynas is uniquely positioned to contribute to the energy transition. Our strategy reflects our purpose to advance a more sustainable society, and our product development pipeline is fully aligned with this goal," Gosse added.

In 2024, the company received an EcoVadis Gold rating, placing it in the top 5 percent of globally rated businesses for sustainability performance.

With consecutive years of strong financial performance, Nynas indicated it continues to monitor debt capital markets to optimise its capital structure “at the appropriate time potentially”.

The Swedish chemicals producer noted that, having ceased operations in the United States in 2022, it remains largely insulated from recent global trade tensions surrounding US import tariffs. The company imports only minimal feedstock from America, shielding it from potential cross-border trade disputes.