Tandy reflects on his life-changing Le Mans win a decade on

Ten years ago, Porsche's 'third car' gave the manufacturer a sensational 17th Le Mans 24 Hours victory, outlasting Audi, overpowering Toyota and Nissan, and cementing the legacies of the white No. 19 Porsche 919's winning drivers: Nico Hulkenberg, Earl Bamber, and Nick Tandy.

Hulkenberg – moonlighting at Le Mans while an active, full-time Formula 1 driver at Force India – was the headlining act of the time. A young driver on the rise, considered to be one of the pound-for-pound top performers, he broke away from the churn of F1's midfield to achieve the result his supporters knew was within his ability.

But to the hardcore sports car racing audience, 2015 was remembered as the breakout bonanza for the so-called 'other guys' in the No. 19 Porsche, Tandy and Bamber.

Ten years later, Tandy recalled the memories of that amazing 2015 victory – on the heels of completing the career 'Tandy Slam', and with the unprecedented feat of winning all three legs of the traditional Triple Crown of Endurance Racing still within his grasp.

"It feels like yesterday, honestly," Tandy tells RACER. "To win the biggest motorsport event in the world. To go there, as a non-full season car, with two drivers that had never raced at Le Mans before – people coming from other series, as well... It was a fairy tale story, and it was a life-changing thing to be a part of."

Tandy and Bamber went from 'those other guys' to being rightfully recognized as elite drivers overnight. And it wasn't as if the trio took an unexpected win the way that Porsche won it in 2016, either.

Tandy, Bamber, and Hulkenberg took the lead at Le Mans after dark. Sutton Images/Getty Images

From just before midnight, when the No. 19 Porsche took the lead from the sister No. 17 car, they never relinquished total control of the race – and not only did they win, they came two laps away from the all-time race distance record.

"Ten years on, we're now sitting here, and we're having a fairy tale story, again, for Porsche Penske in IMSA!" adds the Bedfordshire Bullet.

"So why would we not, then, think we can carry on this story and go and win Le Mans? It's just been one of these years that doesn't happen. They just don't happen!"

Tandy's somewhat unexpected Le Mans win ten years ago was the springboard to a Hall Of Fame-worthy endurance racing career that also included an even more unexpected win later that year – when he drove a GTE-spec Porsche 911 RSR to the overall win at that year's Petit Le Mans in monsoon conditions.

After the 919 Hybrid programme ended, Tandy added wins at the 24-hour races at the Nürburgring in 2018 and Spa-Francorchamps in 2020. He then left Porsche for Corvette Racing, then returned two years later, to be one of the first class of factory Porsche 963 drivers.

And this year, after winning the Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours back-to-back alongside Felipe Nasr and Laurens Vanthoor, there are still parallels between ten years ago and the present at Le Mans.

Tandy added an unlikely win at Petit Le Mans in a GTE 911 later in the year. Brian Cleary/Getty Images

Once again, Tandy is in a car which is there as a surplus entry for the factory Porsche team. The No. 4 Porsche 963 was invited to Le Mans as a reward for his Porsche Penske Motorsport co-driver Nasr winning the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Once again, Tandy shares the spotlight with a Le Mans newcomer from Germany with an extensive single-seater background: This time, it's Pascal Wehrlein, who was the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Champion for Mercedes-AMG back when Tandy won Le Mans for the first time.

"The difference is, with Earl and Nico, we did a lot of testing together," as Tandy explained. "Whereas, it's been a little bit more difficult with Pascal, because me and Felipe have been doing quite a bit of testing on the American side. Pascal's been testing with the WEC team in preparation for Le Mans."

This past Sunday was the first time that the trio of Tandy, Nasr, and Wehrlein shared a car together, and with Wehrlein only getting limited running during Test Day, their time together truly kicked off on the opening day of Practice and Qualifying, on Wednesday.

Tandy's quest for the Triple Crown begins tomorrow from fifth on the grid. It won't be easy, Le Mans never is, but there's a decent chance that on the tenth anniversary of his initial rise from mainstream obscurity to superstardom, Tandy could complete the ascent further into immortality.