About Us
SAM Racing; owned jointly by Lee Philips (ex Group N racer) & Nuno da Cunha (of National Rally fame in the days of Nissan Skyline’s), it has competed in the National Production Car Series for the last 5 seasons, initially with a Class C Honda Ballade 180i, then with 2 x Class T MINI Cooper S race cars, finally with 2 x Nissan 350Z race cars. For the 2008 season, we will campaign 3 x Nissan 350Z’s plus 2 x new Formula VW’s (based on Formula 3 and Formula Renault race cars). Essentially, our’s is a privateer team that does not trade commercially and therefore is required to secure all funding to run the team for the season without any manufacturer contributing financially. In the world of motorsport, SAM Racing has very quickly earned a reputation for taking on established “motorsport greats”, challenging them to win.
In 2005, with Martin Steyn driving the teams MINI and with limited resources by comparison, we took on and beat the factory MINI Cooper S in one of the closest championships to date. What further lends credibility to this achievement is that the BMW & MINI factory team was managed by Hennie van der Linde and the MINI was driven by multiple SA Champion, Shaun van der Linde, Hennie’s son! Our team’s performance prompted Nissan Motorsport to facilitate our move into the top class in SA’s premier circuit racing category by supplying us with 2 privateer Nissan 350Z’s for 2006. In 2007, we became known as the Nissan Dealer Team. Our deal with Nissan has been extended indefinitely although factory support is still limited to the supply of 3 x Nissan 350Z race cars but we now also get full technical support too. SAM Racing is only interested in competing with a product that:
- Participates in SA’s premier circuit racing series,
- Possesses the right brand image,
- Is capable of running at the sharp edge of competition, having an equal chance of winning,
- Would race against its natural competitors from a marketing perspective.
We operate our race team with a full professional compliment of staff comprising myself as Team Principal, Michael Jardim as Race Engineer, Michael Allers as Crew Chief, 2 full time Race Technicians and general helpers. On race weekends, we sub contract additional Race Technicians to ensure that we can deal with nearly all eventualities. Team operations are funded by sponsors, who would retain naming rights to the specific car they fund. Perhaps of equal importance is the fact that we are a marketing driven team that manages to secure & maintain sponsorship due to the considerable focused media exposure we attract. Our status as a privately funded professional team that has managed to take on, and beat, acknowledged factory concerns has endeared us to sponsors, media and race fans alike.