GRR

Nick Tandy becomes the first ever driver to complete the 24-Hour racing Grand Slam

29th January 2025
Russell Campbell

Brit Nick Tandy has become the first driver in history to win all four major 24-Hour races – at Le Mans, Spa-Francorchamps, the Nürburgring and now at Daytona – when he and his co-drivers' Porsche 963 took victory in Orlando last weekend, also making this a second consecutive win for the 963.

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It’s a feat that caps a tremendous career in endurance racing. Tandy won his first 24-Hour race at Le Mans in 2015, followed by the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2018 and the Spa 24 Hours in 2020. His success at Daytona leaves him with a genuine chance of victory in the IMSA GTP this year, but Tandy’s story began long before his wins in big-name races. 

In 2011, he won the Porsche Carrera Cup in Germany, and the following year was crowned winner of the Porsche Cup as the most successful driver racing a Porsche 911.

Unsurprisingly, a Porsche works drive came knocking, and Tandy was soon developing a reputation as a long-distance race specialist, winning the 1,000-mile Petit Le Mans in at Road Atlanta in 2013 in a 911 RSR and taking a 911 RSR to a class victory at the Daytona a year later.

When Porsche was developing its 919 Hybrid, Tandy's testing times impressed so much that he earned a seat in one of the three factory cars competing at Le Mans in 2015, sharing the seat with Hülkenberg and Earl Bamber, beginning the start of his journey to winning all four major 24-Hour races. 

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It was, however, a stalled start. Tandy's No. 19 car qualified in third but by the end of the race's second lap it was in sixth behind a trio of Audis. With Hülkenberg behind the wheel, the Porsche crept back up the pack, overtaking two of the three Audis after an oil spill on the Mulsanne straight bunched up the leaders. But the No.19 car's consistency won it the race, maintaining reliability and avoiding penalties where others floundered. In the end, the team would take victory a lap ahead of Porsche's No.17 car and two laps ahead of the No. 7 Audi. 

Tandy's 2018 Nürburgring 24 Hours win wouldn't be so comfortable. In fact, his No. 912 Manthey Porsche (also driven by Frédéric Makowiecki, Patrick Pilet and Richard Lietz) would finish just 26 seconds ahead of the No. 4 Mercedes after Makowiecki outbraked the Silver Arrow driven by Adam Christodoulou going into turn one with less than 80 minutes of the race to go. 

But if Tandy's Nürburgring result was too close for comfort, his victory at the 24 Hours of Spa in 2020 was almost too close to call. Competing with Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor, Tandy's Rowe Racing Porsche took victory by less than five seconds ahead of Attempto Racing's Audi R8. 

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The final race of the quad – the 2025 24 Hours of Daytona – was secured more comfortably than any of the prior races, Tandy’s No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport car lead more than half of the event's laps. Saying that, it was still not an easy victory. Tandy's Porsche, also driven by Felipe Nasr and Laurens Vanthoor, had battled the No. 24 BMW of Kevin Magnussen, Philipp Eng, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor, before it came a cropper with a GTD Ferrari and the No. 6 Porsche of Matt Campbell, Kévin Estre and Mathieu Jaminet.

Both Porsches would battle into the race's final hours, but the rapidly catching No. 60 Acura ARX-06 forced the No. 6 car to defend, leaving the No. 7 to take the win with Nasr behind the wheel. 

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After the race, Tandy said:  "I am so proud to have won this race with Porsche. 11 years ago was the last time I was on the top step of the Daytona podium – back then in the GT class with a red and white Porsche, and this time again with a red and white Porsche. Three years of hard work have brought us here. We all did it together. 

"At some point years ago, someone told me that nobody had ever managed to achieve overall victory in the four biggest 24-Hour races. Since that day, this goal has been in the back of my mind. Now it has been realised. It feels great to be the first person to achieve something like this."

Main image courtesy of Getty Images.

Article images courtesy of Motorsport Images.

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