Manthey racing

Manthey racing
legal form	GmbH
founding	1996/2001, merger 2013
Seat	Meuspath
management	Olaf Manthey , Nicolas Raeder, Martin Raeder
Number of employees	about 160
Branch	Motorsport , vehicle tuning
Website	Manthey racing

Manthey-Racing is a German motorsport team . His greatest successes are six overall victories in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in the years 2006 to 2009 as well as 2011 and 2018. The double victory in the GTE Pro class at the 2018 Le Mans 24-hour race is another great success The two 911 RSRs used by Manthey-Racing were on the road with historic paintwork on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Porsche .

Companies

Tuning of series vehicles and automobile restoration at Manthey Motors

The team operating company Manthey-Racing GmbH was founded in 1996 by Olaf Manthey in Rheinbreitbach and specializes in developing, building and using Porsche racing vehicles in motorsport. Since 1997, the Manthey Motors division has also offered individual tuning measures for road vehicles according to customer requirements. Due to the growing activities, the company needed a larger location and is therefore now located in the “ Meuspath am Nürburgring ” industrial park near the Nordschleife . In December 2012, Olaf Manthey, Nicolas and Martin Raeder announced that Raeder Automotive GmbH would merge with Manthey-Racing GmbH in 2013. Since the end of 2013 Manthey-Racing GmbH consists of four departments: Manthey-Racing, Manthey Motors, Manthey TZN and Raeder Motorsport.

On December 17, 2013, Porsche and Manthey-Racing GmbH announced that Dr. Hc F. Porsche AG has acquired the majority stake of 51 percent in Manthey-Racing GmbH.

On October 25, 2018, a Porsche 911 GT2 RS MR modified by Manthey-Racing set a new lap record for street-legal sports cars on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. The car, piloted by Porsche works driver Lars Kern , lapped the 20.832 km long route in a time of 6: 40.3 minutes and thus undercut the existing record for road vehicles by over 4.6 seconds.

Motorsport history

Beginnings in the Porsche Supercup

In 1996, when Manthey-Racing was founded, entered the Porsche Supercup directly . The team had its sporting climax in this series towards the end of the 1990s, when it was possible to win both the team and driver rankings, sometimes even with double victories.

Works outings with new Porsche racing cars

In 1999 Manthey-Racing and the American Team Champion Racing were chosen to use the new water-cooled Porsche 996 GT3-R for the first time as unofficial representatives of the plant at the 24 Hours of Le Mans . As representatives of the GT class, the two GT3s, along with two air-cooled Porsche 993 RSRs , were nominally the weakest in the field of 45 racing cars. Manthey's drivers, Uwe Alzen , Patrick Huisman and Luca Riccitelli , achieved 13th place overall and the class win ahead of their colleagues from Champion Racing, Dirk Müller , Bob Wollek and Bernd Mayländer , in 19th place.

In 2006 Manthey-Racing had another outing as a works team when the new Porsche 997 GT3 RSR made its debut in the 24-hour race of Spa-Francorchamps . The two Manthey-Porsches achieved a double victory in their class, with Lucas Luhr , Sascha Maassen and Marcel Tiemann taking 14th place, followed by Timo Bernhard , Marc Lieb and Pedro Lamy in 15th place.

DTM

Bernd Mayländer in the DTM Mercedes at the Sachsenring 2002

In 2001 Manthey-Racing entered the DTM with two new Mercedes-Benz CLKs . Patrick Huisman and Bernd Mayländer were active as drivers for the team. Marcel Tiemann contested a few races as a substitute driver for Bernd Mayländer. During the season, in addition to three podium finishes, a victory in the last race at Hockenheim was achieved - the first victory of a “customer team” in the new DTM. The season ended in third place in the team standings. Since only four new Mercedes-Benz CLKs were available for HWA AG from the 2002 season , Manthey-Racing had to continue with the old vehicles from the previous year. These were no longer competitive with the completely redesigned Mercedes-Benz CLK from 2002 and the further developed Audi TT -R and Opel Astra Coupés , and not a single point could be achieved. At the end of the season, the team withdrew from the DTM after two years.

Success on the Nürburgring

The Manthey-Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, here in 2007, was also victorious in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in 2008, 2009 and 2011.

Porsche 911 GT3 R 997 in pinstripe design on the Nordschleife in the VLN 2012

For a long time Manthey-Racing has been contesting the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring and the BFGoodrich endurance championship with self -built Porsches . After two podium finishes in 2003 and 2004 and a ninth place in 2005 due to an accident, drivers Lucas Luhr, Timo Bernhard, Mike Rockenfeller and Marcel Tiemann in a Porsche 911 GT3-MR won the Nürburgring 24-hour race for the first time in 2006 .

The new Porsche 997 GT3 RSR has been in use since 2007. With this vehicle, Manthey-Racing and the driver crew Marc Lieb, Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Marcel Tiemann were victorious again in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and thus achieved four victories in a row at this event. The second Manthey-Porsche, which was used as the main vehicle by Manthey-Racing until 2006, achieved second place in 2008. A Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S , which formed the second spearhead of the team the following year, came third in 2009. In 2010 the GT3 RSR paused, instead Manthey-Racing fielded a new Porsche 997 GT3 R in the VLN and in the 24-hour race, which led the latter race until shortly after 10 p.m. when it collided with a slower participant through no fault of its own retired.

Thanks to the Balance of Performance, Manthey saw the opportunity to use the “fat” RSR again at the Nürburgring in 2011, and also took advantage of this: in the VLN, the R and RSR alternated in the runs before the 24 hours, while both Vehicles tackled the latter race. The R, which Manthey had as the second ace up his sleeve in the event of a failure of the RSR and occupied with the same driver pairing, was withdrawn after the first two stints in order to concentrate on the RSR. In the end, Manthey won the race with the RSR and set a new distance record with 156 laps.

Furthermore, various private teams with Porsches supported by Manthey-Racing take part in the endurance championship and the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring.

In 2018 the 24-hour race was again very close. Manthey-Racing had qualified a Porsche 911 GT3 R in 1st place (the car with starting number 911) and one in 6th (the car with starting number 912) after the top 30 qualifying . The # 912 had a tire problem right on the first lap and had to go into the pits after the GP circuit . After a tire change, it was able to resume driving. At the same time, the # 911 gained an increasing lead over the rest of the field. Everything went on without incident until around 1:30 a.m. The # 911 received a time penalty of 3:32 minutes for exceeding the speed limit in a code 60 phase . In addition, Romain Dumas flew in the # 911 911 in the swallowtail area on this lap . Later that night the # 912 was able to secure first place after a tough fight. At around 7 a.m. Nick Tandy caused another excitement when the # 912 Porsche turned in the Hatzenbach area. At around 10:15 am, the # 912 also received a time penalty of 3:32 minutes, also because of a code 60 phase. When the race was stopped at around 12 noon, the 911 with the starting number 912 was in second place behind the AMG GT3 with the starting number 4. At around 2:00 pm the field crossed the line and the race was on again. Now it was necessary to hold out for the remaining one and a half hours. The gap between the # 912 911 and the # 4 AMG GT3 was only a few seconds. In an extraordinary rain fight, the 911 with Makowiecki at the wheel was able to drive past the Mercedes at the end of the start-finish straight in the Yokohama-S, which even spun after a small contact. Now it was about an hour to cope with a little lead, which from Porsche's point of view worked. The winners of the 24-hour race were certain: Richard Lietz , Patrick Pilet , Frédéric Makowiecki and Nick Tandy won the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in the # 912 911 GT3 R.