Manthey well prepared for the start of the season

In sunny spring weather last Saturday, seven Porsche 911 GT3 race cars entered by Manthey-Racing completed their laps at the Nordschleife for the first time in the year 2011.

The first common roll-out of the VLN teams revealed that the season 2011 will be a very special one, both for the fans and for the participants: A sensational mix of top drivers and more makes than ever are promising fascinating racing at the most beautiful race track of the world! Whilst Porsche will remain to be the strongest make and, with Manthey-Racing, has a top team in the fight about the race win, their competitors have not taken a rest during winter and did certainly catch up. The very competitive spearhead of Manthey Racing will certainly be challenged by not less than seven brand-new SLS AMG GT3, entered by four teams. Not to forget last year’s winning team of the 24h Race, Schnitzer Motorsport, who will compete at the Eifel circuit with two completely updated BMW M3 GT. For Olaf Manthey, the Phönix-Audi R8 prepared at Meuspath, just around the corner of the Manthey team, must also be considered to be one of the favourite teams. “We are well prepared in the team of Manthey-Racing”, says the experienced strategist. “Everything else will remain to be seen in the next rounds.”

Lucas Luhr who has come back to the team will again be part of the “big” race car in the traditional yellow green design and with start number 11 as regular driver. Due to the close cooperation with Porsche Motorsport, the works drivers Marc Lieb, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas will this year again drive the GT3-R. The crew is completed by Arno Klasen. “The competition will definitely be much closer”, said Lieb at the press conference. “We intend to continue just where we have stopped in 2010”. The race driver from Ludwigshafen/ Germany regrets that according to current plans, he will compete in only three of the ten VLN races for Mantey. “I will however definitely participate in the two 6h races!”.

The opening round of the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring will start this Saturday with the timed practice between 08:30hrs and 10:00hrs. The start of the 58th ADAC Westfalenfahrt over the distance of four hours on the 24.369 kilometres long combination of the Nürburgring short connection and the Nordschleife will then be given at 12 o’clock exactly.

Info and Foto: Manthey Racing/ VLN.de