One driver's quest for unprecedented endurance glory

Motorsport has been around for long enough now that very few drivers become living legends during their careers, especially not at the very elite level.

However, one has now become the first to win the prestigious 24 hour races at Le Mans (2015), the Nurburgring (2018), Spa (2020) and Daytona (2025). Others have taken class wins, but Porsche driver Nick Tandy is now alone as the sole winner of all four outright.

And he could be mere days away from extending that record further with another sensational landmark. But more on that shortly.

First, more on this unique quartet of race wins which has been affectionately called the "Tandy Slam", a name that forces a chuckle from Tandy as his young son - Felix, an ace karter in his own right - plays Gran Turismo while his dad is interviewed by The Race.

"It's just the reaction that we've got that I wasn't expecting," says Tandy, who is remaining humble despite the fact that his achievement undoubtedly puts him up there as one of the best sportscar drivers of all time.

"I had it in the back of my mind that I'd already won three overall of the four big 24 hour races, so it was something that I was kind of looking at, but I didn't realise that other people would notice, or I didn't expect it to be so widely appreciated in the wider world, let's say.

"What you're doing personally is obviously the biggest thing to yourself and your family and people that support you, but to see that it's been recognised as an achievement by lots of other people, it makes it extra special.

"So it's a mega feeling, to be the first person in history to do something is quite an unbelievable thing, to think about what you've accomplished. So it's great, I’m riding the wave."

Tandy's quest for Triple Crown and 'Big 6'

2015 Le Mans 24 Hours - Porsche 919 Hybrid (LMP1)
In a third Porsche entry just for this race, Nico Hulkenberg was the big name but it was Tandy's amazing night stints that underpinned a massive first win for the manufacturer since 1998
2015 Petit Le Mans - Porsche 911 RSR
Started last due to a penalty but heavy rain upset the order and meant the GT cars were more competitive, plus the race was shortened by two hours due to the weather
2018 Nurburgring 24 Hours - Porsche 911 GT3 R
Overcame an early puncture and a car smashing into his car's door in the pits to win on the Nordschleife. Tandy calls this race "the toughest to win of all the great endurance races"

2020 Spa 24 Hours - Porsche 911 GT3 R
Skipping a tyre change vaulted Tandy and his team-mates into the lead but then the gearbox blew on the penultimate lap. The oil from the gearbox impacted the car behind and allowed Tandy to bring the car home
2025 Daytona 24 Hours - Porsche 963 (LMDh)
After early understeer and a lack of grip, the crew bounced back and led over 66% of the laps, holding off a late Acura charge for a second win in a row for the #7 car

Tandy, who started in short oval racing in his native UK so has followed an unusual path to elite-level motorsport, has been a Porsche driver for most of his career.

Many may have thought 2015 would be the peak of his career, when he was incredible and maybe even outshone his co-drivers (Nico Hulkenberg and Earl Bamber no less!) - on his way to winning the Le Mans 24 Hours, and then achieved arguably the most ridiculous of all his accomplishments as he beat the prototype field at the prestigious 10-hour Petit Le Mans in a GT car in the rain. Yes, that's not a typo: alongside Patrick Pilet and Richard Leitz, Tandy beat the top-level DPi cars that day.

His Daytona win alongside Felipe Nasr and Laurens Vanthoor didn't necessarily feel like it had similar levels of heroics, because the #7 Porsche 963 had won the race the previous year with Nasr involved (a driver line-up shake-up for 2025 swapped Tandy into the car from the sister #6 entry in the IMSA SportsCar Championship).

But given he had won his class in 2014 and then not triumphed again in the nine years that followed, and the significance of this success towards the slam, no doubt it will always hold a special place in Tandy's memory.

Speaking of which, as it is so rare to become a legend - such is the list of drivers and achievements to outdo over decades - what does Tandy think about being thrust into that conversation?

"At the time, when you're involved in doing something, you don't really think about the accomplishment or what you're achieving," says Tandy.

"I take Le Mans [2015] as one example. It was a massive thing, but I expected to win. I didn't really evaluate what I'd done, and looking back and having gone there another 10 years, trying to win again, you do look back and say actually, that was a pretty bloody good thing that we did.

"So it's nice to be recognised for your achievement from other people. But when you're in and still doing it, you celebrate on the podium on Sunday, but by Monday, the focus is already on the next race.

"It happens to be the Sebring 12 hours, which is great. But if it was a three-hour VLN [race on the Nordschleife], the focus immediately goes on to the next race. It's good to think and look back at Daytona now, already a few weeks later. I guess in 20 years [it will be even better]."

It's interesting that Tandy mentions Sebring, which segues onto the next part of this story and reflects perfectly his erstwhile-mentioned notion that the last win is quickly forgotten and it's onto the next one.

Only AJ Foyt, Hans Herrmann, Jackie Oliver, Al Holbert, Hurley Haywood, Mauro Baldi, Andy Wallace, Marco Werner and Timo Bernhard have won sportscar racing's Triple Crown of Daytona, Le Mans and Sebring.

So no sooner than Tandy has invented his own grand slam, his focus is now on becoming a Triple Crown member and perhaps even an elevated one - as the others can't boast adding Nurburgring, Petit Le Mans and Spa (pictured below) to that mix.

It really would be impossible to deny Tandy as one of the all-time greats if he achieved that.

"I was already thinking about this two years ago," says Tandy, reflecting a racing driver's typically forward-thinking outlook. He took three class wins in a row at Sebring from 2018-20, but the overall win has so far eluded him.

"We were very close to winning at Sebring two years ago and again, we probably had an even better chance last year to win, but both times we got taken out in someone else's accident.

"But I was already thinking then, if I managed to win at Sebring then it's only Daytona to go to complete the six [Daytona, Le Mans, Nurburgring, Petit Le Mans, Sebring and Spa] or the Triple Crown. So, it is something that I think about, and something that would be awesome to achieve and then go onto another list of very few people that won the Triple Crown, or again, be the first to do the 'big six'.

"But it's never going to change how we approach the race, or how much effort that I put in or if there's 10 minutes to go of the race, it'll be a similar approach if it was the first time, or if it was the 10th, because the main aim, and my main motivation in my working and my sporting life, is to just beat everyone every time I do something, every time I go racing.

"So as long as that doesn't change, hopefully I'm going to be doing it at the top level for quite a long time, because I do love winning. And I'm getting worse at losing."

Sebring is a different challenge. Many think it's harder than Daytona - which is double the length of time - because of the ridiculously bumpy track, the Florida heat even in March, and the fact that the same 60-plus cars spread out across the banks of Daytona are then condensed onto a more traditional twisty road course layout that concertinas the cars closer together.

"Sebring is a massive challenge, because you've got to stay clean, you've got to get to the end which is never easy with 65 cars on a short track," summarises Tandy.

"So it's definitely a massive, massive challenge, to stay out there, stay competitive. Have a car that works well in the morning, through the heat of the day and then into the night, and with all the other 60-plus cars out there, you've got to have a lot of luck. And on top of that be fast when it matters."

To add to this, it's a race that Porsche has struggled to master with its 963 Hypercar, having failed to win at two attempts since the current LMDh IMSA regulations came in for 2023. Cadillac and Acura have been victorious in the two previous events under this ruleset.

And every year, the LMDh cars get that bit better and that bit more reliable, and the driver line-ups just keep getting stronger.

Those who believe in such things might consider that your luck is used up to win Daytona, and that there's not enough left for Sebring. It's a short list of those who have managed both in the same year, which totals just three since the first time it was done by John Paul Sr and Jr in a Porsche 935 (now owned by McLaren's Zak Brown) in 1982.

But this year might just benefit from a sprinkle of magic as Tandy chases a second new record in two many races.

The only problem for Tandy would be what to call his big new achievement. Tandy Crown Slam sounds like a wrestling move, so maybe just the 'Big 6' would cut it.

If his quest for that fails, there's still the big prize of an overall IMSA title to focus on. Fourth and second so far in his two attempts, he's now in the #7 car that won the title last year.