Fred Makowiecki and Nick Tandy are aiming to capture the driver’s championship in Porsche’s final season in GTLM.
The German manufacturer announced last month that it will call time on its factory GTLM programme at the end of the 2020 season as a result of the financial impact brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Porsche is defending both GTLM titles during its final campaign off the back of a landmark 2019 season, in which it won both the driver’s and manufacturer’s titles, but Tandy and partner Patrick Pilet lost out to team-mates Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor.
Makowiecki, who joined Tandy as the third driver for endurance rounds in the last three seasons, hasn’t raced full time in the championship since 2016.
“When you know it’s the last season for us in IMSA, you want to make it the best possible,” said Makowiecki. “Nick [Tandy] and me, we want to win the championship, it’s something we would like to do.
We’ve got some great races, great wins of the big races, Nick more than me, but we didn’t get the championship. So, that’s what we will try to do. Our competitors won’t make our lives very easy, but we are prepared and we want to fight.”
For Tandy, a GTLM driver’s title is the only thing still missing on his impressive IMSA resume. He finished runner-up in 2019 but helped Porsche to the manufacturer’s championship.
The 35-year-old has taken class wins in each of the four IMSA enduros, winning at Daytona upon Porsche’s return in 2014, as well as back-to-back victories in the Twelve Hours of Sebring (2018 and 2019), two Petit Le Mans win (2015 and 2018) and a victory in the Six Hours of Watkins Glen in 2019.
“It’s the same as Fred,” added Tandy. “The one thing that I’m missing from my years in IMSA is the championship.
“I’ve won a couple obviously with Porsche in the manufacturer’s [championship], which is awesome. But to have a driver’s championship would be a number one priority.”
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