Sam Paley is a racing driver from United States who competes in Zenith Racing Series for GridSeat. Paley * has recorded 2 wins and 25 podiums from 80 starts.[1]
A Racer Rating of 3,664 ranks Paley * 5126th of 40,349 indexed drivers, on an Elo scale where the strongest reach the high 8,000s. It is built from every indexed race in the driver's file.
| 2026-08-01 | Watkins Glen International ZR2 | DNF | −226 |
| Rating won | Race | Series | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| +126 | Virginia International Raceway 2025 | IMSA Pilot Challenge | P2 |
| +122 | Barber Motorsports Park 2020 | US F4 | P2 |
| +121 | Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course 2020 | US F4 | P4 |
| +115 | Daytona International Speedway 2025 | IMSA Pilot Challenge | P4 |
| +110 | Barber Motorsports Park 2020 | US F4 | P2 |
| Season | Series | Team | Races | Wins | Podiums | DNFs | Poles | Points | Pos | Gain/Loss | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | ▸Zenith Racing Series | GridSeat | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | P18 | −226 | 3,664 |
| 2025 | ▸IMSA Pilot Challenge | KOHR MOTORSPORTS | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | P8 | +232 | 3,890 |
| ▸Mustang Challenge | Paley Motorsport | 6 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | P5 | +86 | ||
| ▸SCCA Regionals | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | P22 | −21 | |||
| 2024 | ▸Mustang Challenge | Southern Paley Motorsports LLC | 10 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | P3 | — | 3,592 |
| ▸IMSA Pilot Challenge | McCumbee McAleer Racing | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | P28 | ↑14−133 | ||
| 2023 | ▸Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin | McCumbee McAleer Racing | 8 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | P12 | −115 | 3,711 |
| ▸SCCA Majors | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | P9 | +55 | |||
| 2022 | ▸Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin | McCumbee McAleer Racing | 14 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | P6 | +216 | 3,771 |
| ▸SCCA Majors | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | P66 | −102 | |||
| 2021 | ▸Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin | McCumbee McAleer Racing | 14 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | P4 | +149 | 3,657 |
| ▸NASA | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | P31 | −67 | ||
| 2020 | ▸US F4 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | P9 | ↑825+472 | 3,645 | |
| ▸Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin | McCumbee McAleer Racing | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | P21 | −4 | ||
| 2017 | ▸Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | P30 | +931 | 2,281 |
| Rival | Rating | Raced | Ahead | Behind | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸 Aaron JeansonneFIA Silver | 4,721 | 38 | 23 | 15 | 61% |
| 🏳️ Selin Rollan | 3,551 | 38 | 12 | 26 | 32% |
| 🇺🇸 Gresham WagnerFIA Silver | 3,285 | 38 | 12 | 26 | 32% |
| 🇺🇸 Alex BachouraFIA Bronze | 3,161 | 38 | 30 | 8 | 79% |
| 🇺🇸 Jared ThomasFIA Silver | 4,261 | 37 | 16 | 21 | 43% |
| 🇺🇸 Jenson AltzmanFIA Silver | 3,366 | 33 | 25 | 8 | 76% |
| 🇺🇸 Justin PiscitellFIA Silver | 3,743 | 31 | 19 | 12 | 61% |
| 🇺🇸 Moisey UretskyFIA Bronze | 4,012 | 30 | 23 | 7 | 77% |
| 🇺🇸 John Jodoin | 2,847 | 30 | 23 | 7 | 77% |
| 🇺🇸 Woody Heimann | 2,559 | 30 | 25 | 5 | 83% |
| 🇰🇾 Kyffin SimpsonFIA Gold, 1× champion | 5,946 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 67% |
| 🇺🇸 Sammy SmithFIA Silver, 2× champion | 5,492 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100% |
| 🇺🇸 Nolan SiegelFIA Gold | 5,455 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 67% |
| # | Driver | Series | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5,116 | 🇩🇪 Heinz-Josef Bermes | Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie | 3,665 |
| 5,117 | 🇳🇱 Mervyn Kool | Formula Renault Eurocup | 3,665 |
| 5,118 | 🇺🇸 Rob Walker | Porsche Carrera Cup NA | 3,665 |
| 5,119 | 🇫🇷 Augustin BERNIER | Road to Le Mans | 3,664 |
| 5,120 | 🇭🇺 Bence Boldizs | FIA World Touring Car Cup | 3,664 |
| 5,121 | 🇺🇸 Charles Espenlaub | Porsche Endurance Challenge North America | 3,664 |
| 5,122 | 🇫🇷 Christophe CRESP | Road to Le Mans | 3,664 |
| 5,123 | 🇺🇸 Connor Bloum | Porsche Carrera Cup NA | 3,664 |
| 5,124 | 🇬🇧 Hector Hurst | FIA Formula 3 European | 3,664 |
| 5,125 | 🇺🇸 Joey Atterbury | IMSA Pilot Challenge | 3,664 |
| 5,126 | 🇺🇸 Sam Paley | Zenith Racing Series | 3,664 |
| 5,127 | 🇮🇹 Alessandro Bressan | European Le Mans Series | 3,663 |
| 5,128 | 🇮🇹 Andrea Dupe | Formula Regional European | 3,663 |
| 5,129 | 🇵🇱 Jacek Zielonka | Asian Le Mans Series | 3,663 |
| 5,130 | 🇺🇸 Jackson Lee | NASCAR Truck | 3,663 |
| 5,131 | 🇺🇸 Mitchell GREEN | Ferrari Challenge | 3,663 |
| 5,132 | 🇫🇷 Nicolas Misslin | Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup | 3,663 |
| 5,133 | 🇳🇱 Niek Hommerson | Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie | 3,663 |
| 5,134 | 🇧🇪 Stefan Vancampenhoudt | Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie | 3,663 |
| 5,135 | 🇧🇪 Yannick Redant | 24H Series | 3,663 |
| 5,136 | 🇺🇸 Chad Blount | NASCAR Xfinity | 3,661 |
Sam Paley is an entry-level professional competing in single-class and multiclass sprint racing across national series in the United States, primarily in purpose-built and production-based machinery. His main base for four seasons was McCumbee McAleer Racing in the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup, where he earned Rookie of the Year honours in 2021. Since 2024 he has raced for his own operation, Paley Motorsport, fielding Ford Mustang Dark Horse R cars in the Mustang Challenge.[1]
Paley spent 2020 to 2023 in the Mazda MX-5 Cup, taking nine podiums across 38 starts and winning the rookie title. He branched into formula racing early, with three podiums in a short 2020 US F4 campaign, and has since sampled IMSA's entry-level Pilot Challenge in a GT4 car, picking up a single podium across seven starts. His most productive period came in 2024 and 2025 driving for Paley Motorsport in the Mustang Challenge, where he took two wins and eight podiums in 16 starts. He has also raced SCCA events at both regional and national level, collecting four podiums across those appearances. His current 2026 season in the Zenith Racing Series is underway, with one round completed so far and Paley holding 18th in the championship standings.[2]
His regular opponents in the Mazda MX-5 Cup included Aaron Jeansonne, a professional racer with 56 starts in the series and silver-graded in endurance racing, with whom Paley ran closely matched. Gresham Wagner, the 2021 Mazda MX-5 Cup champion and an entry-level professional, was also a consistent rival; Paley typically finished behind him. Among the established professionals he has faced, Paley has beaten Kyffin Simpson, a gold-graded driver who won the 2021 Formula Regional Americas championship and has raced IndyCar and Indy NXT, on four occasions, and has one finish ahead of Sammy Smith, a silver-graded driver with multiple ARCA Menards championships and 135 NASCAR Xfinity starts.