Briton Nick Tandy has landed a factory deal with Porsche for 2013.
The 28-year-old, who won the Porsche Cup as the most successful privateer driver of 2012, becomes the 10th factory driver. He joins a roster that includes Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Jorg Bergmeister, Marc Lieb and Patrick Long.
Tandy said: “A big dream has come true; I’m absolutely thrilled. Ever since I first drove a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, it was clear to me that there could be nothing better than to become a works pilot for Porsche.”
“It’s great that Porsche recognised what I have achieved so far and that they included me in the factory pilot family. I’ll do everything to merit this trust.”
No programmes have been alloted to individual factory drivers as yet. Tandy’s only confirmed drive so far is at next month’s Daytona 24 Hours with a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup run by Konrad under the Orbit banner.
Tandy started racing Porsches with guest drives with the Konrad team in the German Carrera Cup and then the Supercup at the end of 2009.
He finished runner-up in both series in 2010 and started appearing regularly aboard customer Porsches in international sportscar events around the world from the beginning of 2011, the year he also won the Carrera Cup in Germany
The contract with Porsche comes at a time when the German manufacturer is gearing up to re-enter topflight sportscar racing with a petrol-electric LMP1 hybrid in 2014.
Porsche is understood to favour drivers with recent single-seater or prototype experience for its P1 squad.
Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/tandy-lands-porsche-factory-deal
Christian Klien Karl Kling Ernst Klodwig Kamui Kobayashi Helmuth Koinigg
No comments:
Post a Comment