Tandy Felt He Was on ‘Pole-Winning’ Lap Until Accident

Photo: Perrywinkle Johnson

Nick Tandy believes he was on a potential pole-winning lap prior to his accident that resulted in a red flag in qualifying for the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The Englishman lost control of his No. 6 Porsche 963 at the Le Mans Chicane with seven minutes to go in the 20-minute GTP qualifying session for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener.

While escaping extensive damage to to the Multimatic-chassied prototype, it marked the first accident for a LMDh car in an officially timed session.

“I have to say thank you to the team for giving me such an amazing car to drive,” said Tandy. “I’ve never experienced the 963 in these conditions with that sort of speed and balance.

“Honestly, the car was just amazing.

“The lap time looked very good. I [needed] just to complete going nicely through the Bus Stop and it looked like we would have had a good time for the pole.

“Unfortunately I just locked the left-front wheel in entry to the Bus Stop and got slightly wide and on the dirt. By the time I tried to correct the car for the second curb, the rear stepped out and I lost control.

“It doesn’t look like we’ve done too much damage, luckily.”

Tandy managed to bring the car back to pit lane under its own power but lost his two fastest laps due to bringing out a red flag.

It will result in the No. 6 car of Tandy and co-drivers Mathieu Jaminet and Dane Cameron starting ninth on the GTP grid for the around-the-clock endurance classic.

“Of course it’s not the ideal preparation going into a 24-hour race when parts are limited,” Tandy said. “But the big positive is how the team has been operating this week and how fast the car is and how pleasurable it is for us to drive.”

Tandy’s teammate Felipe Nasr qualified second in the sister No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John