SAMAX Motorsport was a racing team owned by Peter Baron that competed primarily in the

Rolex Sports Car Series The Rolex Sports Car Series was the premier series run by the Grand American Road Racing Association. It was a North American-based sports car series founded in 2000 under the name Grand American Road Racing Championship to replace the failed ...

but also spent one year in the

IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices o ...

Team history

The team was founded in 2005 by fielding a car for Mark Greenberg at the 6 Hours of Mont Tremblant. Shortly after that race the team ran the #7 Riley-Pontiac Daytona Prototype co-owned by millionaire businessman Brian Tuttle, Greg Wilkins and Dave Lacey and the #17

Porsche 911 GT3 The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance homologation model of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is a line of high-performance models, which began with the 1973 911 Carrera RS. The GT3 has had a successful racing career in the one-make national ...

in Grand Am. In 2006, Milka Duno joined the Daytona Prototype team, bringing with her sponsorship from

Citgo Citgo Petroleum Corporation (or Citgo, stylized as CITGO) is a United States–based refiner, transporter and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products. Headquartered in the Energy Corridor area ...

. The team of Duno,

Patrick Carpentier Patrick Carpentier (born August 13, 1971) is a retired Canadian professional auto racing driver. In the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series, he achieved five wins and 24 podiums, as well as two third place championship finishes in 200 ...

, Darren Manning, and

Ryan Dalziel Ryan Dalziel ( ; born 12 April 1982), is a Scottish professional racing driver. Dalziel has seen the most success in his career in the United States, racing in the American Le Mans Series GT1 class and the Champ Car World Series, and winning ...

finished 2nd overall in the 2007

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layou ...

, the team's best Grand Am finish and the best finish in a major sports car race for a female driver. SAMAX fielded a second Prototype in the 2007 24 Hours of Daytona for Roger Yasukawa, Tomáš Enge, Chris Festa, and

Christian Montanari Christian Montanari (born 21 June 1981) is a former racing car driver from San Marino. Results summary Career summary Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results (key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a pi ...

that finished 6th. On March 23, 2007, the team announced that it would enter the

Indy Racing League The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsor (commercial), sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American American open-wheel car racing, open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United S ...

. They ran Duno with Citgo sponsorship in 6 races during the 2007 season, including the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of India ...

French-Canadian French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fren ...

driver Jean-Francois Dumoulin replaced her in the prototype. The team did not return to the IndyCar Series in 2008 as Duno moved to Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, but continued in the Rolex Sports Car Series with their BMW-

Riley Riley may refer to: Names * Riley (given name) * Riley (surname) Places * Riley Park–Little Mountain, a neighborhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada * Riley Creek (Ontario), a tributary of the Black River in Central Ontario, Canada * Ri ...

being driven by Dalziel and Henri Zogaib. The team of Dalziel and Zogaib captured the team's first Daytona Prototype victory in the 5th race of the season at

Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Laguna Seca Raceway (branded as WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, and previously Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca) is a paved road racing track in central California used for both auto racing and motorcycle racing, built in 1957 near both Salinas and M ...

. Despite the success, the team did not return for 2009. Reportedly, Zogaib had been funding the racing venture through employing a

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comi ...

in which he had conned the Dalziel family for $550,000 USD and owes SAMAX owner Peter Baron $450,000 in team expenses and $800,000 in investments Baron had made in the Ponzi scheme.Ganguli, Tania & Willoughby Mariano
Investors: Racer said to keep things quiet
, ''Orlando Sentinel'', July 24, 2009 In 2010, Baron re-entered team ownership with the new Starworks Motorsport team.

Racing results

Complete IRL IndyCar Series results

( key)

References

External links

Official team website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Samax Motorsport IndyCar Series teams Grand American Road Racing Association teams American auto racing teams