2025 was packed with memorable moments, as sports car racing continues to go from strength to strength globally. Despite this, there was little question as to the destination of the newest award to be added to DSC’s end-of-year roster.
We’ll begin with some honourable mentions, starting with January’s Rolex 24, when sports car racing’s latest great rivalry was born. Joining the ranks of Ford v Ferrari and Audi v Peugeot, we welcomed Augusto Farfus v Corvette.
In the closing hours of the race, whilst fighting for GTD Pro victory, Corvette’s Tommy Milner showed Farfus ‘the bird’ out of the window of his Z06 GT3.R, following some robust defending from the Brazilian. The image instantly went viral, with Milner later printing it on a t-shirt in aid of the American Eagle Foundation.
The story wasn’t over yet, however, as nine months later, Farfus’ attempt to hold off TF Sport’s Nicky Catsburg at the FIA WEC finale in Bahrain saw him again on the wrong side of a one-fingered salute!
In June, the Ferrari 499P secured its third 24 Hours of Le Mans victory in as many years. What made this triumph special, however, was that it was the privateer #83 AF Corse entry on the top step of the podium, after a well-executed run from Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson and Ye Yifei made them the first privateer entry to win the race in 20 years.
This was far from the only moment from Le Mans week to make our shortlist. In Hyperpole, Alex Lynn went one better than last year and scored Cadillac’s maiden Le Mans pole position, as part of a front row lockout for the Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA squad.
This year’s now seemingly annual late drama was assigned to the LMP2 category. A pit lane speeding penalty inside the final hour appeared to have cost Inter Europol Competition victory, only for front-left suspension failure to cause VDS Panis Racing’s Esteban Masson to slow, handing the top spot back to the Polish outfit following a race-long duel between the teams.
The morning of the big race, the focus was on the Michelin Le Mans Cup, and the fight for success in the second of its blue-riband Road to Le Mans encounters. Unfortunately, but memorably, one driver took this tagline a little too literally, with Gino-Generoso Forgione having to be held back after punching and kicking at the door of Josep Mayola Comadira’s Ferrari 296 GT3, after opening lap contact between the pair stranded both in the Dunlop Chicane gravel trap.
Sometimes the fact that a race is happening is a significant moment in itself, and the European Le Mans Series’ return to Silverstone certainly falls into this category. The first ACO-rules event in the United Kingdom for six years attracted a large crowd despite poor weather on race day, and DSC is looking forward to a hopefully drier weekend in 2026!
Lamborghini’s maiden victory at the 24 Hours of Spa brought the Huracán’s 11-year run as the Italian marque’s GT3 platform to a triumphant end. After multiple near-misses over the years, things finally came together for the Raging Bull, and the #63 GRT – Grasser Racing Team Huracán GT3 Evo2 of Jordan Pepper, Mirko Bortolotti and Luca Engstler defeated Rutronik Racing’s Porsche in a straight fight in the closing hours.
In Super GT, Toyota won a record-breaking nine consecutive races before NISMO finally snapped its undefeated streak at a mighty 385 days. The depth of quality in the Toyota ranks again went unmatched by rivals Honda and Nissan in 2025, with five Supra crews ending the year in the top six of the final GT500 standings.
The DTM, meanwhile, delivered a spectacular championship battle, which saw nine drivers from five different manufacturers enter the Hockenhiemring season finale in contention. This title fight built towards a sensational crescendo, when Ayhancan Güven dived up the inside of Marco Wittmann on the final lap of Race 2 for both race and championship honours.
Dailysportscar’s Moment of the Year
The Tandy Slam
Given sportscar racing now has over a century of history, it is becoming increasingly rare for a driver to achieve a major feat that no one else has done before.
Entering 2025, however, there was still one big achievement left unaccomplished: outright victory in all four major 24-hour races at Daytona, Le Mans, Nürburgring, and Spa.
In stepped Nick Tandy, who, by scoring victory at January’s 24 Hours of Daytona alongside Laurens Vanthoor and Felipe Nasr, immortalised himself in the record books and, with 11 months of the season still to go, made himself an easy choice for DSC’s Moment of the Year.
Tandy’s 24-hour success began over a decade ago in 2015, when he played a starring role in Porsche’s first Le Mans victory in 17 years aboard the additional, third 919 Hybrid. Notably, Tandy would go on to clinch all of his twice-around-the-clock triumphs with the German marque.
The Briton would add victory at the Nürburgring three years later with Manthey Racing, before scoring a dramatic win at the 2020 24 Hours of Spa, when Tandy managed gearbox issues in the closing stages to bring home ROWE Racing’s 911 GT3 R (991.2) in challenging conditions.
This left only Daytona on the to-do list, and the advent of the Porsche’s 963 prototype programme brought the 41-year-old to the IMSA Sportscar Championship’s top category for the first time in 2023.
The 963 was not ready to win on debut, and a near-miss followed in ’24 as Tandy’s car faded in the closing stages after fighting for the top spot throughout. It finally all came together this year, as Nasr fought past BMW’s Dries Vanthoor and teammate Matt Campbell to climb from third to first on the final restart and secure victory.
In hindsight, the win also came at what could prove to have been the Briton’s final opportunity, with Tandy returning to the GT ranks in IMSA in 2026 aboard AO Racing’s ‘Rexy’.
Super GT image © GTA, DTM image © Porsche AG, Tommy Milner T-Shirt image © Tommy Milner
