Photo : Frederic GAUDIN (ACO)

 

Born on April 21, 1955, in Bonn, Germany, Olaf Manthey has a massive amount of experience competing in endurance and racing Porsche 911s. The former driver turned team owner of Manthey Racing has five wins (four in a row from 2006-2009) at the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring, with expert drivers of the 911 and 24 Hours of Le Mans such as Marc Lieb, and Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard and Mike Rockenfeller, Le Mans winners in 2010 and current distance record holders.

For the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship, Porsche naturally entrusted Olaf Manthey to be the marque's factory team in LM GTE Pro. The battle was hard fought throughout the season with Ferrari and Aston Martin, but  Porsche AG Team Manthey claimed the most coveted race of the year : the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Between the two Porsche 911 RSR cars of Dumas-Lieb-Lietz and Bergmeister-Bernhard-Pilet as well as the Aston Martin Vantage V8 of Dumbreck-Mücke-Turner, the race was undecided until a rain shower drenched the Circuit de la Sarthe on Sunday just before 2pm. The two 911s made the decision not to pit for rain tyres and finished 1-2 in the LM GTE Pro class. This was Olaf Manthey's second victory at Le Mans, after a class win in 1999 for drivers Patrick Huisman, Uwe Alzen and Luca Riccitelli and their Manthey Racing 911 GT3-R.

In 2014, Porsche's link to Olaf Manthey will be even closer, after the marque purchased a portion of the team. The Stuttgart company will therefore be officially present in both LM GTE Pro and LM P1, with two new prototypes recently baptised the 919 hybrid.

Jean-Philippe Doret / ACO - Translated by Rainier Ehrhardt / ACO

Photo : LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013, RACE. Olaf Manthey and his drivers had a superb 1-2 finish in the LM GTE Pro class with the Porsche 911 (shown here, the car of winners Romain Dumas, Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz), which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013.