Tandy Among Frikadelli Porsche Drivers for N24

Corvette Racing driver Nick Tandy will continue driving Porsche machinery this year, as part of Frikadelli Racing Team’s two-car GT3 effort for the Nürburgring 24 and NLS.

Tandy, who was a Porsche factory driver for eight seasons before joining Corvette for the 2021 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, will team up with Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet and Earl Bamber in the No. 30 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The No. 31 Frikadelli car will be driven by Frederic Makowiecki, Patrick Pilet, Dennis Olsen and Maxime Martin.

Frikadelli’s GT3 Porsches will compete in the NLS and the Nürburgring 24 qualifying race ahead of the Nordschleife’s headline endurance fixture on June 5-6.

Tandy is set for his first Nürburgring 24 outing since the 2019 edition. He won the race the year before that driving for Manthey Racing with Makowiecki, Pilet and Richard Lietz.

Last year the British driver won the Total 24 Hours of Spa in a ROWE Racing Porsche shared with Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor, confirming him as an outright winner of the three major European 24-hour races at the Nürburgring, Spa and Le Mans.

Following his move to Chevrolet at the end of 2020, Tandy told Sportscar365 that he was interested in making future Porsche GT3 appearances if his IMSA role allowed it.

There are currently no date clashes between the IMSA GT Le Mans category – which is where Tandy drives for Corvette – and the Nürburgring calendar up to and including the N24.

Tandy’s signing is one of several adjustments to the Frikadelli Racing Team lineup from last year.

The German squad, which is co-run by Klaus Abbelen and Sabine Schmitz, is ramping up its bid for a maiden N24 victory with two lineups involving Porsche-affiliated drivers.

In last year’s NLS, Frikadelli fielded one SP9 Pro-category Porsche and another in the Pro-Am division, although the latter entry was upgraded to Pro status for the N24.

Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen were the team’s main drivers in the NLS last term, but the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance champions have returned to Manthey for 2021.

Jaminet and Campbell were teamed up with Julien Andlauer and Lars Kern at Manthey heading into last year’s campaign.

Porsche’s emergency N24 lineup shuffle due to positive coronavirus test results in the manufacturer’s bubble resulted in Jaminet being placed with Frikadelli in the Eifel enduro.

The Frenchman finished seventh overall alongside Kern, Lance David Arnold and Martin, who is a defending 24 Hours of Le Mans GTE-Pro class winner with Aston Martin.

Bamber is the only member of the updated Frikadelli squad to have never driven for the team before.

Olsen, Tandy and Jaminet won the 2019 Kyalami 9 Hour together in a Frikadelli Porsche, which led to Olsen capturing the Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli drivers’ title.

“The anticipation of the new season is incredibly great,” said team co-principal Abbelen, who is himself piloting a Frikadelli-run Ligier JS P320 Nissan in Michelin Le Mans Cup.

“Thanks to the support of Porsche, we have an extremely strong driver squad for the races at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

“We will prepare even more intensively to aim for top placements. For driving, I will focus primarily on the Michelin Le Mans Cup in 2021, which does not rule out isolated sporadic missions in other racing series over the year.”

In addition to its two-car GT3 entry, Frikadelli will also campaign a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport at the Nürburgring.