Manthey Racing was founded by Olaf Manthey after his retirement from the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft series in 1993. He began working for Persson Motorsport in 1994 before establishing Olaf Manthey Racing in 1996. The team relocated to its current location in Meuspath on April 1, 2000.
The team’s motorsport debut came in the Porsche Supercup in 1996, finishing 4th in the teams’ standings with 158 points. Between 1997 and 2000, Manthey Racing achieved considerable success, securing four consecutive teams’ and drivers’ championships with Dutch driver Patrick Huisman, whose four titles remain the most won by any driver in the Porsche Supercup. Manthey Racing also made their first competitive appearances at the Nürburgring in 1998 and the Circuit de la Sarthe in 1999.
Manthey Racing competed in German touring car racing with Mercedes-Benz machinery in 1992, 2001, and 2002, achieving a best finish of 3rd in the DTM teams’ standings in 2001. After a 21-year absence, the team returned to DTM in the 2023 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, winning both championships with Dennis Olsen and Thomas Preining. Following a less successful 2024 season, Manthey bounced back to win both titles in the 2025 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, with Ayhancan Güven crowned champion.
Manthey Racing first raced in the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2023, finishing 2nd overall, less than a second behind the winners. The team secured an outright victory in the 2024 Bathurst 12 Hour with drivers Matt Campbell, Ayhancan Güven, and Laurens Vanthoor, also winning in the Pro-Am class. In the 2024–25 Asian Le Mans Series, Manthey Racing dominated the GT class, winning the title with Antares Au, Klaus Bachler, and Joel Sturm, and earning an invite to the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Manthey Racing’s first run at the Nürburgring came in 1998, winning a VLN race with a Porsche 911 GT2. Since 2006, the team has participated annually in the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, achieving a record-setting seven overall victories. Their first victory in the endurance event came in 2006 with Lucas Luhr, Timo Bernhard, Mike Rockenfeller, and Marcel Tiemann, also setting a new distance record of 3,832 km in 151 laps. The team secured further overall victories in 2007, 2008, and 2009 with the same driver lineup. After a seven-year drought, Manthey won their sixth overall victory at the 2018 24 Hours of Nürburgring, and a record-setting seventh in 2021. In 2025, Manthey took pole position and the win on the road, but a 100-second penalty following an incident involving Kévin Estre dropped them to 2nd place.
Manthey Racing made its Le Mans debut as a privateer in 1999, winning the LMGT class with Patrick Huisman, Uwe Alzen, and Luca Riccitelli. The team began supporting Porsche’s works programme in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2013. In 2013, the team scored six podiums, including a 1-2 victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing 3rd and 4th in the LM GTE Pro teams’ standings. They secured the FIA Endurance Trophy for the LM GTE Pro class in 2015, with Richard Lietz winning the LM GTE drivers’ championship. From 2016 to 2023, the Manthey name was absent from entry lists, though the team continued to support Porsche’s LM GTE efforts. In 2022, Manthey Racing prepared Porsche 911 Turbo S sports cars to be used as safety cars for the FIA World Endurance Championship. The team returned to the entry lists in 2024 with Porsche’s LMGT3 team, winning the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMGT3 class with the #91 car. The #92 car clinched the drivers’ and teams’ titles at the 2024 6 Hours of Fuji, with the #91 car securing a 1-2 finish in the LMGT3 teams’ standings at the 2024 8 Hours of Bahrain. In 2025, Manthey Racing continued to campaign the FIA World Endurance Championship with cars backed by 1st Phorm and Iron Dames, securing back-to-back Le Mans wins and championships.
Alongside racing, Manthey operates a tuning department specializing in enhancing Porsche road cars, particularly the 911 and Cayman models, often with Porsche-approved upgrades. Porsche conducted official lap record attempts at the Nürburgring Nordschleife with Manthey packages, with Lars Kern setting a production car lap record in 2021 with a Porsche 911 GT2 RS with a ‘Manthey Performance Kit’.
[unverified] Further detailed statistical records of Manthey Racing’s performance across various series are maintained in specialist motorsport databases.
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