Samantha Tan leads MINI John Cooper Works at Nürburgring 24h

The MINI John Cooper Works charges into the 2025 Nürburgring 24-Hour race with Canadian ace Samantha Tan sharing the cockpit. Her maiden appearance in the “Green Hell” adds fresh energy to Bulldog Racing’s proven package, and she arrives with a cabinet full of endurance trophies and the cool confidence only hundreds of laps in GT machinery can bring. Sliding into the snug carbon bucket, Tan links up with her trio of co-drivers to form a quartet built for relentless sprint stints and midnight tyre swaps.

Markus Fischer, victor of last year’s class, returns to protect his crown and extract every ounce of grip from the aggressive-camber chassis. German Nürburgring specialist Sebastian Sauerbrei provides deep circuit knowledge, his data traces guiding set-up tweaks as the light fades and track temperatures tumble. Completing the roster is British young-gun Toby Goodman, whose early career podiums marked him as a racer who wastes no time getting up to pace; his neat, minimal-steering style will be an asset when traffic thickens on the 25.378-kilometre loop.

Together they must tame 170 corners per lap, threading the Works-prepared hot hatch through blind crests and compressions at speeds that punish brakes and suspension in equal measure. The team’s strategy hinges on consistent fuel stretches, rapid wheel changes and spotless lap sequences—every missed apex can translate into minutes lost across a full day. Tan’s knack for managing tyres over long stints and reading evolving grip levels is expected to keep the MINI firmly in the class fight once darkness cloaks the Eifel forest.

Bulldog Racing’s engineers have fine-tuned the turbocharged engine for the circuit’s brutal mix of flat-out straights and high-load bends, while revised aero pieces stabilise the car on the daunting Schwedenkreuz sweep. Inside, the driver line-up trusts each other implicitly—radio banter may be light-hearted, but focus sharpens whenever the pit board signals the next stint is due. With over 130 competitors on the same ribbon of asphalt, survival hinges on clear communication, swift overtakes and a sprinkle of nerve.

If reliability holds and traffic cooperation lasts, the number-317 MINI John Cooper Works could leave the “Green Hell” with silverware once more. For Samantha Tan, debuting at one of motorsport’s toughest endurance arenas in such a feisty machine is yet another bold step in a career defined by unflinching pace and boundless ambition.