Triple Crown of endurance racing

Automobile endurance racing with sportscars started with the Targa Florio (1906-1977) lapping the island of Sicily, and in 1923, the 24 Hours of Le Mans introduced the classic time limit on a closed circuit. The Mille Miglia lapped northern Italy, and the Carrera Panamericana crossed Mexico, but these large scale events were discontinued in the 1950s.

Some circuits like Nürburgring, Spa-Francorchamps and Monza held Grands Prix, 1000km races, and also 24 Hours races, but not continuously over decades. In the 1960s, when Ford challenged and beat Ferrari at Le Mans, two events in Florida established themselves as part of the World Championship: the 12 Hours of Sebring on a bumpy airfield, and the 24 Hours of Daytona partially run on the infield and on the banking of the oval track. Both events take place early in the year, with a larger share of darkness than in other events, and both are indicators of the performance of new cars. Even though the rules were often different between the races, sportcars and GTs of the same teams could enter the most challenging endurance races on different continents. The media began to talk about an informal Triple Crown of endurance racing, in regard to the drivers, even though two or three share a drive: Daytona and Sebring that start the endurance season, and Le Mans as the undisputed sportscar highlight.[1][2]

As of 2025, only 10 drivers have completed this Triple Crown by winning all three races. Hans Herrmann was the first to do so with Porsche from 1960 to 1970, and Nick Tandy is the most recent to do so in 2025.[3] No driver has won all three events in the same year.

Ken Miles lost the chance to win all three events in the same year when Ford team orders for a photo finish made him lose the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans. This incident was dramatized in the 2019 film Ford v Ferrari. Miles died two months later testing the Ford J-car. In 2025, Laurens Vanthoor had similar results; he won at Daytona and Sebring in a Porsche 963 LMDh that won both kind of championships twice, IMSA and WEC, but finished second in the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans to the Ferrari 499P that was made as WEC-only LMH to win Le Mans, which it did three times in a row, with only one WEC championship on top.

Hurley Haywood and Al Holbert have won all three races at least twice.

Numerous drivers have won, or entered, only two out of the three events that makes up this informal triple crown of endurance racing. Tom Kristensen won Le Mans 9 times, Sebring 12h six times, and is the most successful driver at both events, but he was active in an era when Daytona and IMSA had different rules and cars, thus "Mister Le Mans" never raced on the oval despite being present as spokesperson for the main sponsor, Rolex.

List of Triple Crown winners

Bold on year indicate at which race the driver achieved his Triple Crown.

Driver Year completed 24 Hours of Daytona 12 Hours of Sebring 24 Hours of Le Mans Total wins
Phil Hill 1964 1964* 1958, 1959, 1961 1958, 1961, 1962 7
Dan Gurney 1967 1962** 1959 1967 3
Hans Herrmann 1970 1968 1960, 1968 1970 4
Jackie Oliver 1971 1971 1969 1969 3
Jacky Ickx 1972 1972*** 1969, 1972 1969, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1982 9
Hurley Haywood 1977 1973, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1991 1973, 1981 1977, 1983, 1994 10
A. J. Foyt 1985 1983, 1985 1985 1967 4
Al Holbert 1986 1986, 1987 1976, 1981 1983, 1986, 1987 7
Andy Wallace 1992 1990, 1997, 1999 1992, 1993 1988 6
Mauro Baldi 1998 1998, 2002 1998 1994 4
Marco Werner 2005 1995 2003, 2005, 2007 2005, 2006, 2007 7
Timo Bernhard 2010 2003 2008 2010, 2017 4
Nick Tandy 2025 2025 2025 2015 3

(*) Held as the 2000 km of Daytona. (**) Held as the Daytona 3 Hours. (***) Held as the 6 Hours of Daytona.

Source:[4]

Big Six

The "Big Six" is an expansion of the endurance racing Triple Crown that adds Petit Le Mans, the Nürburgring 24 Hours and the Spa 24 Hours.[5][6][7] The Big Six races are considered to be the six most prestigious endurance races in the world.[8] Petit Le Mans is the only other major endurance race besides Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring to feature top-tier machinery, while Nürburgring and Spa are the only other major 24-hour races besides Le Mans and Daytona.

In 2025, Nick Tandy became the first driver to win the Big Six endurance races overall after winning the 2025 12 Hours of Sebring.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ Ryan, Nate (2011-06-08). "Joey Hand goes for sports-car Triple Crown in Le Mans". USA Today.
  2. ^ "The other Triple Crown that Alonso is on his way to achieving". Retrieved 20 August 2021.
  3. ^ Richards, Giles (2015-11-21). "Mark Webber and Porsche claim World Endurance Championship title". The Guardian.
  4. ^ "The Elusive Sportscar Triple Crown… | dailysportscar.com". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 2024-06-29.
  5. ^ Dagys, John (2025-03-11). "Tandy: "High Motivation" to Complete "Big Six" Enduro Wins – Sportscar365". sportscar365.com. Retrieved 2025-03-16.
  6. ^ "One driver's quest for unprecedented endurance glory". The Race. 2025-03-13. Retrieved 2025-03-16.
  7. ^ "Nick Tandy makes history after winning the six biggest endurance races | Crash.net". www.crash.net. 2025-03-16. Retrieved 2025-03-16.
  8. ^ "Winners and losers from the Sebring 12 Hours". The Race. 2025-03-16. Retrieved 2025-03-16.
  9. ^ Dagys, John (2025-03-15). "Tandy Reflects on 'Triple Crown', 'Big Six' Feats With Sebring Win – Sportscar365". sportscar365.com. Retrieved 2025-03-16.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.