Monday 28th December 2015

Nick Tandy deserves a knighthood: TMIW

Why Tandy deserves a place in the new year's honours

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The most frustrating consequence of this whole 'dieselgate' fiasco, beyond the 'missold TDI?' jokes and Eamonn Holmes being more insufferable on Sky News, is the impact on motorsport. No, really. It wasn't covered as widely as all those poor people not knowing what to do with their Golf Bluemotions, but Audi and Porsche confirmed in November that they would only run two cars each rather than three at Le Mans 2016. Officially it was described as: "In the interest of maximum cost efficiency", and with the compensation claims mounting it isn't hard to see why efficiency is so important.

No chance to repeat this in 2016 it seems

Anyway, what this means is that Nick Tandy, Earl Bamber and Nico Hulkenberg will not get a chance to defend their 2015 Le Mans victory next year. Not unless one of the six main drivers drops out. Which sounds fairly absurd really. Three guys who had never raced at Le Mans before were dropped into a third car and then beat the six drivers who had been involved with the 919 project from the start. Now none of them will be able to prove that it wasn't a one-off.

But before this becomes a tirade against VW's dodgy diesels, it's time to focus on the main issue: Nick Tandy. Specifically, why Nick Tandy could well be the most criminally underrated racing driver in the world. He's a hugely successful British sportsman too, one we should be immensely proud of.

How's this for an opener? Not only did Tandy take Le Mans victory, he was part of the Porsche #911 team at Petit Le Mans with Richard Lietz and Patrick Pilet that won the Road Atlanta enduro outright. A GT car beating the prototypes. That as well as LMP2 victory at the Nurburgring Six-Hour with KCMG Oreca Nissan, making him the only driver to win three different ACO-recognised classes this year. Think how different those cars are and you will realise what a phenomenal achievement that is.

GT and LMP2 wins on top of Le Mans this year!

At the Autosport awards this year, Tandy was nominated for both 'British Competition Driver of the Year' and 'Rookie of the Year', reflecting just what extraordinary and rapid progress he has made. This is a man who says motor racing remained just a hobby until he was 23 and is now vying for global recognition with F1's greatest just a few years later. Plus he's somehow classed as a rookie at 31. He didn't win and never will do as long as his talent remains hidden from the public domain. Well, and as long as F1 dominates this sort of ceremony, but that's an argument for another time. Let's here try and spread the word about one of motorsport's greatest talents. Or tell me I'm wrong whenever is appropriate...

Tandy's sensational talent is his ability to get in anything and drive it blisteringly fast. He began his career in Minis, not in karts. From there, he won 11 of the 14 races in his first season of the BRDC Single Seater Championship in 2005. Minis to single-seaters and a champion in his first season. He was runner-up in British Formula Ford the year after, won the Formula Palmer Audi autumn trophy in 2007 and had some Formula 3 success.

Nick Tandy came onto my radar in 2009/10 with his Porsche Supercup and Porsche Carrera Cup Germany drives, but I hadn't realised just how well he had done until researching this story. Offered a drive in the German championship at Dijon-Prenois in 2009, he jumped in the car with no testing and finished second. He followed that with another second for the same team (Konrad Motorsport) in the Abu Dhabi round of the Porsche Supercup later that year. After a second place in the 2010 German series, Tandy won it in 2011 and became the first Englishman ever to win the German Carrera Cup. Which must have felt pretty good.

He's earning some recognition but needs more!

Hopefully this makes the point clear before the story becomes a Nick Tandy bio; he's a brilliantly fast driver. But more than that, he comes across as likeable too, a regular bloke who just so happens to be one the world's greatest racing drivers. He enjoys playing computer games, he Tweets pictures of his little girl, he was in his local on Christmas day. It's modest as racing driver downtime goes, which is refreshing. See here for his favourite "extreme sports" too; they may surprise you...

In Britain we are often superb at celebrating our sporting heroes, but Tandy's success appears to have gone unnoticed. I get the impression he wouldn't want a great deal of fuss to be made but to see such achievements go unnoticed is very unfair. Tandy will race with Pilet once more in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship over in the States next year, and who would bet against them doing very well again? Especially when they're being joined by Kevin Estre for the endurance races. While he's plying his trade in the US, Tandy may still be on the fringes of wider recognition in the motorsport community. But that shouldn't be right, so spread the word to everyone you know about Nick Tandy. He may not make it to an official knighthood this year but that's not through a lack of talent or determination. He has a PH one, that's for sure. Be upstanding then, please, for Sir Nick Tandy. Or, of course, you could tell me I'm wrong...

Vid here to show his incredible pace, right up until a punctured radiator...

 

[Sources: Autosport, Wikipedia, Porsche AG, Nick Tandy via Twitter, 24hLeMans, Sportscar365, GTLeMans, images from LAT]

[Goodsteed]

Criminally overlooked at a real kick in the nuts for the 2016 Le Mans that last year's winners can't hold onto their trophy before a wheel has turned!