How Tandy's latest record gain was a completely different victory for Porsche

Nick Tandy, Felipe Nasr and Laurens Vanthoor did two out of two last weekend in the IMSA Sportscar Championship 2025. The Porsche Penske Motorsport trio completed the “Florida 36 hours” when they added a victory at Sebring to their 24-hour triumph in Daytona in January over 12 hours in Daytona. And with that came another record for tandy: he joined the selected group of drivers to claim the unofficial triple crown of the endurance race by adding an overall crown of the Sebring to add his success of Le Mans and Daytona.

At first glance, Sebring looked like a repetition of Daytona: The same PPM Porsche 963 LMDH won, the sister car was among the first three (second, this time not third) and an acura claimed the other podium. This is not another sublime performance of the Fabrikpenske squad. “Just like Daytona, we have no penalties, have contacts or technical problems,” said Tandy. “It was another flawless race.”

However, this was actually a completely different breed. The Porsche was the fastest car around the 3.74-mile Sebring International Raceway. That was not the case with Daytona: BMW, remember, could and should have won the IMSA season stay.

Plus: How BMWS Daytona has created a one -sided Porsche victory

And this time the winner #7 Factory Porsche had a significant advantage over Matt Campbell's sister car, Mathieu Jaminet and Kevin Estre, a car that did not run a round at Sebring. Seven weeks earlier at the high banks of Daytona, #6 was at least his match, with the chance of winning effectively when PPM decided to strategy in the last Pitstop.

It would be churian to say that it was easy for Tandy, Nasr and Vanthoor, not if the gap between the two Porsches on the checkered flag was only 2.2 seconds. But there was nothing of the danger of daytona, no real threat from the sister car or another manufacturer in the last shot to the line.

When the race after the seventh and last security car – compared to 12 last year – was able to turn away from Jaminet, which in turn had the measure of Nick Yelloly on board the Meyer Shank Racing Acura Arx -06 LMDH #93. Porsche's big challenger for a large part of the race was not in the mix.

This car was the Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series. It led almost as many of the 353 rounds as the winner Porsche – 155 against 166 – on Saturday, but a different strategy in the last few hours left the queue in Bamber's hands at the last restart and then fifth in the flag.

Vesti had led out of the box three hours before shifts during the penultimate Pitstop, but stopped eight minutes before Tandy. The next stop of the car was nine minutes earlier after Bamber had taken over. This left fourth place behind the two Porsches and the #25 Rahal BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDH with Marco Wittmann at the wheel before the last yellow set.

That was a net third because the BMW had to inject for fuel. Action Express also decided to bring Bamber, hoping that with fresh Michelin rubber he could possibly do something about the Porsche.

“We had looked at the race last year and believed that new tires were the right option and would give us enough advantage to get back to the Porsche,” said Bamber. “But we just couldn't cross.” His problem was that he took nine rounds to bring NEEL Jani past Porsche in private Proton Competition.

What was not clear is whether the action car that had to stop in the last yellow for the fuel. The previous PitCall came on the clock with an hour and three minutes three minutes ago, which would have caused a splash to run the race breed green during the last hour. It seems that there was a problem with the fuel system that was still clarified by the team or Cadillac, which led to shorter stations than before in the race when it had a clear fuel advantage.

But Bamber was not convinced that he could have beaten the Porsches in a straight struggle. He held the advantage that the caddy enjoyed during daylight lessons under the cover of darkness.

“They came alive at night and seemed to be the strongest of the manufacturers,” said Bamber about Porsche. “The best thing we could have done at the same pace was the third or second if everything had become absolutely perfect.

The dominance of the winner Porsche was so that he did not make the last two hours of the race. After Vesti #7 had preceded his fuel advantage in the box with the kind permission of his fuel, the Porsche, now with tandy at the wheel, came back to him. It was achieved after 10 laps shortly before the goal, but Tandy couldn't do the Move Stick. Nine rounds later he threw it into the inside in the last pass for the leadership of the race in round 17.

The Porsche #7 now has two victories in the belt, but Tandy has ambitions of a third in Long Beach

Photo of: Kind permission from IMSA

“I had a couple in him and once was over the line,” said Tandy. “Then I got a run in the back directly.

It was fitting that Tandy should take the step, which for the last time brought number 7 in the lead, despite the task of NASR, to bring the car home in the high-pressure final. In Daytona, Tandy was the first driver who completed all four 24-hour races of the world when he recorded his respective triumph from 2015, 2018 and 2020 at Le Mans, the Nurburgring and the Spa. This time he joined an illustrious list of names – and a selected – from drivers who won at Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring. In addition to greats such as Dan Gurney, Hurley Haywood, Al Holbert Jr. and Timo Bernhard the 10 ..

Tandy was asked to share in Sebring: he had talked about what it would mean after Daytona and said how he wanted to correct the wrong of the past few years when he – or should the third – the Florida require 36 hours. This made it difficult for him to choose between historical importance in less than two months between his achievements.

“To be part of a selected group that the Triple Crown won, make me proud – just look at the names that have done it,” he said. “It has more history than winning the four 24-hour races, but to be the first person to do something, there is probably something over the triple crown.

“Everything happened in just a few weeks, so people may be talked about these records.

Plus: Why Tandy's Enduro record should be celebrated after his Daytona Triumph

Until the last weekend, Jackie Oliver and Andy Wallace were the only other British drivers that made the triple – and Wallace, the only one who scored four times by adding a victory in Petit Le Mans Enduro in Road Atlanta. Tandy emulated his performance – he triumphed overall before the prototypes at the wheel of a Porsche of the GT Le Mans in the rain in 2015.

That is why Tandy has victories in all six, which the Big Six Sports -Car -Enduros can be described these days. That asked a question: what next? The answer was extreme.

“Long Beach is next,” he said, pointing to the coming third round of the IMSA series. “Records are great for the history books and there is just as much effort to win there as with any other race the challenge of going out and beating everyone, regardless of whether it is a 12-hour race, a 24-hour race or a 100-minute race or a 100-minute race.”