Nick Tandy has revealed that he spoke to Porsche GT racing boss Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser about switching to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2018 once he knew that the LMP1 programme in the FIA World Endurance Championship was coming to an end.
The Briton will be paired alongside Frenchman Patrick Pilet in 2018, while Frédéric Makowiecki join them for the season opening Rolex 24 at Daytona, and he admitted a move to IMSA was preferable over racing in Porsche’s GTE Pro squad in the World Endurance Championship.
“When I knew the P1 programme was finishing, I immediately spoke to Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser to ask if there might be an opportunity to race in North America,” said Tandy on Motorsport.com.
“Having sampled GT racing across the globe, I know that the most fun racing is in IMSA. The great events, the level of competition between the factory cars and the spirit of North American sportscar racing make it the best racing out there.”
With testing limited ahead of the race at the Daytona International Speedway next month, it was logical for both himself and fellow WEC refugee Earl Bamber to compete in Petit Le Mans in October, with his previous tests in the 911 RSR coming almost two years ago.
“The Daytona 24 Hours comes early, so testing with the new car was always going to be limited,” said Tandy. “I only did a couple of tests with the car early in 2016, and it is a very different racing car now.”
