For the first time in its illustrious history, Manthey is set to grace the grid of the 12 Hours of Sebring this weekend, as part of its maiden campaign in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup.
The winner of seven Nürburgring 24 Hours, six 24 Hours of Le Mans (in class), and titles in the FIA WEC, DTM and Asian Le Mans Series, has expanded into IMSA for its largest-ever North American programme, with a two-car effort split across the GTD Pro and GTD classes.
Both of its Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Evos spent time out front in their respective categories at the 24 Hours of Daytona, as part of a strong first showing for the German squad. The #911 ‘Grello’ GTD Pro effort led as late as the 22-hour mark on its way to a fifth-place finish, whilst the #912 finished ninth in GTD after losing time with a blocked radiator.
Despite not finishing on the podium, Manthey still left Daytona happy with its first showing in IMSA competition for eight years.
“We are pretty satisfied,” Patrick Arkenau, Manthey’s racing director, tells DSC. “For sure, not with the result. We struggled a little bit on pace after the final restart. But in general, we’ve been very happy with how everything went.
“I think we maximised the package we had. It was a bit chaotic for us coming to the Roar, getting used to everything, but we definitely found our rhythm during the week. The race went very smoothly from our side, so I’m super happy with the team.”
Competing in IMSA part-time has required Manthey to make several changes to its standard method of working. One key difference compared to racing in Europe, for example, is that the garage is not connected to the pit box, and the team has to operate across both an infield garage and a pit-side stand.
“Everything runs a bit differently, and it definitely took us some time to understand just the general setup and how everything is done,” Arkenau explains.
“It’s very different in terms of logistics at the racetrack. We’re used to operating out of our box at one place, and the biggest move you have to make is to move from the box to the pit wall and cross the working lane in the fast lane. But the whole logistical process in IMSA, with the two different places where you’re at and where you’re operating, has been a challenge, and we definitely had to adapt our process of how we work.”
The Rolex 24 was Manthey’s first race with the 992-spec Porsche 911 GT3 R’s new Evo kit, which has been released for customers this season after making its racing debut at last year’s 12 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
“We like it,” summarises Arkenau. “The pure hardware changes are minor. We have the aero update, which helps us a little bit in drivability, but the main updates are in terms of reliability and also in terms of software functionalities, which definitely have a big impact on how we can influence the cars throughout the race. In general, it’s not a huge evolution, but all the steps have been in the right direction.”
The expansion into the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup forms part of an evolving race programme for Manthey, with this being the third new series that the team has entered following the conclusion of Porsche’s factory LMGTE programme at the end of 2022.
This year, it’s competing in the Asian Le Mans Series, DTM, FIA WEC and Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie alongside its IMEC assault, in a distinct contrast to as recently as 2022, when Manthey ran in just 10 races.
“Manthey has definitely changed since 2013, when Porsche took over as majority shareholder. We’ve been growing a lot,” Arkenau says.
“When I started at Manthey in 2014, we were 50 employees and just very focused on racing, and now we’re more than 350, and we have a lot of different sectors we’re active in, with also road car commitments with the Manthey kits for the Porsche cars.
“With the end of the RSR [LMGTE] programme in 2022, we had to reinvent our racing activities, starting with the DTM in 2023, expanding to WEC in 2024, and 2024/2025 was our first season in ALMS. We’ve been looking at where we can still expand what’s still on our calendar, and what makes sense in this big picture.”
Following its triumphs in Europe and Asia, adding the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup was the obvious next step for Manthey (which previously dipped its toe in IMSA back in 2017 and 2018 at Daytona in one-offs), as Arkenau explains.
“We’ve been successful in WEC, DTM and on the Nordschleife, so there was one big thing we still had to conquer, and that was the North American continent.
We’ve been welcomed by everyone inside the paddock, by all the officials, by all the fans
“This is definitely why it’s been the perfect timing for us to go there, and also to show that we are competitive and can fight for podiums and victories there. It’s been the logical expansion of our programmes, and we’ve been very happy with the first race, we definitely like it. We’ve been welcomed by everyone inside the paddock, by all the officials, by all the fans. We felt everyone was happy to see us, and we also felt very good there.”
As well as for the sporting competition, the move into IMSA has also allowed Manthey to better promote the other aspects of its business to the North American market.
“It took us some time to first of all understand what our brand is and how we can represent it. Our car is currently very much focused on Manthey as a brand. ‘Grello’ itself, as a car, a bit like Rexy for AO, is quite well known, but maybe not the brand behind it. This is why we also try to put our focus on the car to Manthey. We don’t have any ‘Grello’ stickers on the car; we have a Manthey sticker.
“Then we’re trying little things to show our products. We have some events with Porsche centres, so before and after every race, we have a night in Porsche centres, where the Porsche centre invites their customers. We bring the race car, we bring one of the road cars with the Manthey kit, we have people from engineering or management, we have some drivers.
“We speak about Manthey, we speak about the relationship between Porsche and Manthey, what makes our combination so successful, and our heritage together. And this is how we want to tell people more about Manthey, and not only about our racing activities.”
Looking to the future, it’s clear that the appetite is there for Manthey to one day expand its presence in North America to a full-time IMSA Sportscar Championship campaign.
This time we don’t want to lead with two hours to go. We want to lead at the chequered flag
“For sure, we have plans,” Arkenau admits. “We would like to go to a full-season effort in the future in IMSA, but we have to see how it is with our partners and if we can make it work. I cannot confirm anything in that direction now, but it would definitely be something we would be very interested in.”
More immediately, however, the focus is on this weekend and the famous bumps of the Sebring International Raceway.
Manthey isn’t used to waiting long for success with new programmes – it took at most three rounds to secure its first victory in Asian Le Mans, DTM and FIA WEC competition – and as such, the expectation is to already be competing for at least a spot on the podium.
“We want to go for podiums and wins, and that’s definitely possible,” Arkenau states.
“We had a good test in Sebring. The car felt good, the drivers were all on pace, so we’re definitely ready for Sebring and very much looking forward to it. It’s our absolute goal to fight for the win, and this time we don’t want to lead with two hours to go. We want to lead at the chequered flag.”
Images courtesy of IMSA, Jack Webster, DTM
