Christina Lam Is Living the American Motorsport Dream—and She’s Just Getting Started

If you look at the who’s-who of any racing series on the planet, you might notice a pattern with the drivers who make it to the top. Most of them start karting the day they can crawl, win championships by the time they can walk, and move on to formula cars once they can run—oh, and they’re almost all dudes. But many of today’s racing drivers are demonstrating that this longstanding formula for making it is no longer holding as much water, with Christina Lam serving as living proof of someone who’s forged their own path—in more ways than one.

Lam’s motorsports journey began at the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife, but not in the way you might expect. On an unrelated vacation through Europe, she found herself a stone’s throw away from the famed ribbon of tarmac and decided to participate in one of the Nordschleife’s many Touristenfahrten (tourist drive) sessions. It’s important to note that she also learned how to drive a manual car during the same excursion. That must be the coolest "how-I-learned-to-drive-stick" story we’ve heard.

From the moment she caught the racing bug, she made a quantum leap from her experience abroad to becoming a trailblazer for women in motorsport. She’s driven a wide range of machinery in her career thus far, including GT3, GT4, TCR, LMP3, and even Trans Am cars.

From College Graduate to Racing at Daytona

Her transition from Nürburgring tourist laps to racing driver was surprisingly linear. Once she was back home on American soil, Lam got involved at her local autocross, advancing to the National Auto Sport Association’s (NASA) track days—often referred to as high-performance driving events. She made her official debut in a Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) race shortly thereafter, and the events that followed are a picture-perfect success story for American grassroots racing.

See All 8 Photos8

As you might imagine, grassroots competition involves building and fixing things yourself, and Lam’s endeavor was no exception. That meant building her first three race cars from the ground up. Her first competition car was an E36 BMW M3, followed by two E46s. “Knowing how to build the car is really important, and I think that helps me talk to my engineers now,” Lam told MotorTrend in a recent interview. Despite Lam no longer needing to wrench on competition cars herself, her mechanical acumen still pays massive dividends as she speaks the same language as her engineers.

Lam would race for four years in the SCCA’s Super Tour class, the highest level of American club racing, before stepping up to the big leagues. Her “made it” moment involved racing an Audi RS3 LMS TCR at Daytona International Speedway (and other select racetracks) for a partial season in IMSA’s Michelin Pilot Challenge competition. To Lam, it was a dream come true: Not only had she officially made it as a racing driver, but she also became the first Asian American woman to compete in IMSA.

“It was very unreal for me to realize ... I’m actually making moves in a way for not just women, but motorsports as a whole,” Lam said. “There were five girls competing between TCR and GS that year.” While her IMSA debut was a gargantuan moment in her career, Lam has always wanted to take big steps and try new things every year to build on her career trajectory.

Wrestling Monsters: The Move to Trans Am

“Building a new car, or trying a different class, or trying a different approach, that’s just been my thing,” Lam said. Keeping with her journeywoman driving aspirations for 2026, Lam earned a spot in the Trans Am Series (presented by Pirelli) for the full season. Often referred to as America’s Racing Series, it’s the longest-running professional road racing championship in North America, dating back to 1966. The cars themselves are absolute monsters, famously difficult to drive. Lam compared the visceral experience of piloting her TA2 car to “driving a powerful school bus,” and that says it all.

See All 8 Photos8

Her TRB Racing Chevy Camaro TA2 features a tubular space-frame chassis underneath (much like a NASCAR car). It also lacks many of the driver aids you might expect in a modern racing car, including traction control, ABS, and stability control—making it a handful on the track, to put it mildly. That’s because the TA2 class in particular prioritizes driver development, close competition, and cost control.

See All 8 Photos8

“The Trans Am car is very unforgiving ... you really have to manhandle this car around to get it to do what you want,” Lam said. “Everyone who drives a Trans Am car becomes a better driver.” Keeping the car in a straight line is a tall ask, given it cranks out over 500 horsepower and weighs just a whiff under 3,000 pounds.

While Lam continues to better herself behind the wheel of a racing car, she’s also been working flat out to open doors for women in motorsport.

Elevating Women in the Paddock

Of course, Lam has become an exceptional driver. These days, she does equally exceptional work when she’s not behind the wheel, helping to create opportunities for other women in motorsport—and not just for aspiring drivers.

“One of my goals is also to help other people who are looking to be engineers ... and link them up with the right teams,” she said. In fact, Lam met (and hired) her current photographer and videographer, Chelsea Schwier, during her club-racing days, and the two have stayed together throughout Lam’s pursuits in IMSA and Trans Am racing.

See All 8 Photos8

Working in tandem with the National Center for Women’s Innovations (NCWI), Lam has also helped elevate women in motorsport. She mentioned a recent NCWI-sponsored initiative she helped organize, which gave the University of Florida’s Formula SAE team behind-the-scenes access to her and her race team at Daytona International Speedway. “They were able to spend some time with me, the mechanics, the car, and get an up-close look at everything,” Lam said. While that’s just one instance, she continues to help an increasing number of women navigate the dizzying path to success in this modern era of motor racing.

Lam will continue her Trans Am campaign with upcoming races at some of the most iconic North American racetracks. For the remainder of the 2026 season, the series will host races at Lime Rock Park, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Road America, Watkins Glen, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, and Virginia International Raceway, with the finale at Circuit of the Americas. If you’re not already watching Trans Am, you’ll be able to follow Christina for the rest of the year in her Chevy Camaro TA2 car, sporting her longtime sponsor Helium Mobile on the car’s blue, purple, and orange livery.