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.

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. 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 963LMDh 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.