From farm to fame, Nick Tandy recognised for 24 Hours grand slam

TimesLIVE

30-07-2025

The answer came in 2018 when he won the Nürburgring 24 Hours, again with Porsche. In 2020 he conquered the Spa 24 Hours with Bamber and Belgian Laurens Vanthoor.
That left Daytona and Tandy had won the US race previously in the GT class.
"Somebody said to me 'you do realise nobody has ever won them all, overall, and you've won three and you've got a class win at Daytona'. I thought 'Oof! Now there's a challenge'," he recalled.
The Briton succeeded last January with Brazilian Felipe Nasr and Vanthoor.
Tandy also won the 2015 Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, Georgia, and 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida last March, becoming the first driver to win endurance racing's "Big Six".
In a world where the car is more often the star, Tandy said he had been taken aback by the amount of interest suddenly penetrating his "little bubble".
"I drive my little car in my little races around and around and kind of finish where we started up," he said.
"I haven't been on water and driven a boat faster than anybody's ever done. I haven't won a world championship in a plane. I haven't circumnavigated the globe.
"It makes you realise that what you've done is probably bigger than I ever thought."
Comparisons have been made to double Formula One champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Jim Clark, an all-time great who came from a Scottish farming family and died in 1968.
Tandy said being mentioned in the same breath as Clark was unbelievable but the background similarity was not a surprise.
"There's many more other good drivers who come from farming," he said.
"There's something about having the land available and growing up and driving machines, working on machines and understanding mechanics.
"I'm a professional racing driver, but when I come home, I can switch off and go back to family life and working in my workshop, helping my dad on the farm. Being a normal person."