Nick Tandy became the first-ever driver to win overall across motorsport’s four major 24-hour races following the recent 24 Hours of Daytona.
In the post-race press conference after winning the IMSA SportsCar Championship opener on 25-26 January, he said:
“To be the first person to do ever to do something is, I mean, it’s quite unbelievable really.
“I think first of all, you’ve got to be proud that you’ve been put in a position to be able to compete in those sort of races and then be in a car that can compete for the win.
“But yeah, it never really dawned on me about these sort of records and stuff like this until, well it was with Laurens [Vanthoor], we won the Spa [24 Hours].
“And you know, somebody said, ‘Well you’ve got class wins and all the four majors now’.
“And then you kind of look into it and you see other people, you know, legendary names on these lists who won various things but never overall in all four class winners.
“It’s something that since that day, probably [in] 2020, it’s something that I’ve definitely wanted to check off the list.
“Winning Daytona is a massive thing anyway, as a standalone event – don’t get me wrong.
“So I’m very proud to be sat here again obviously, as an overall winner, is special.
“But yeah, to get the big four 24-hour wins, I mean, one would be just an incredible career.
“So to be able to get four and a few Sebrings [12 Hours] and a few Petits [Le Mans] is a dream come true.”
A unique achievement earned over nine years
Tandy earned his first major 24-hour race win at the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans in Porsche’s LMP1 project, although he won the Daytona 24 Hours in the GTLM category for the Weissach manufacturer in the previous year.
Then at the 2018 running of the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring, Tandy was victorious in the #912 Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R with teammates Frederic Makowiecki, Patrick Pilet and Richard Lietz.
Two years later, Tandy claimed his first win at the historic 24 Hours of Spa which also runs the GT3 formula specification of race car.
Incidentally, one of Tandy’s two co-drivers for the 73rd running was fellow Daytona co-winner and reigning WEC Hypercar Drivers’ champion Laurens Vanthoor.
Almost five years separated Tandy to last Sunday’s overall 24 Hours of Daytona win for Porsche Penske in the #7 Porsche 963 GTP entrant.
All four of the key 24-hour races are considered historic not only within the sportscar racing discipline but also across motorsport with Spa and Le Mans recently celebrating their Centenary editions.
His attention will be on the next round of the 2025 IMSA season which is the 73rd running of the 12 Hours of Sebring where he has two GTLM class wins from 2018 and 2019.
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