• Second and third place for Manthey EMA at the 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers 
• Last race on the Nordschleife before the 24-hour classic in the Eifel passes without any incidents for Manthey EMA
• With Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, Ayhancan Güven and Thomas Preining, all 24-hour drivers have now already contested two races at the Green Hell

Nürburg. With a second and a third place, Manthey EMA can look back on two successful four-hour races at the 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers. Thomas Preining (Austria) and Ayhancan Güven (Turkey) collected valuable race kilometres in consistently sunny as well as day and night conditions in preparation for the endurance season highlight in the Green Hell on 1 June 2024.

Saturday's race with a strong field of 130 cars started at 17:30 and continued into the night. The Porsche 911 GT3 R with starting number 911 started from eighth position. Thomas Preining worked his way up to fourth position during the first hour of the race before handing over to Ayhancan Güven halfway through the race. The turkish driver was making his race debut for Manthey EMA on the Nordschleife. After four hours, he crossed the finish line in the Porsche in third place. Due to a 32-second post-race penalty imposed on the second-placed car, the team moved up to second place.

In Sunday's top qualifying session, where the SP9 and SPX teams battled it out for the best grid positions in the individual time sessions, Thomas Preining put the nine-eleven in seventh place on the grid. Ayhancan Güven worked his way up to fourth position on the very first lap of the race before handing over to his team-mate Preining after two hours. After 8 laps of the race, Güven took over the wheel again in fourth position for the last 40 minutes of the race and was able to move up to third position 20 minutes before the end of the race. This means that the team has now finished on the podium in all four races on the Nordschleife so far this season.

"With four races in eight days we probably had the most compact preparation for the 24 hour race in recent years. We finished on the podium twice again this weekend and are very happy with that. After driving with Kévin and Laurens last weekend, this time our two DTM drivers, Ayhancan and Thomas, were at the wheel. The main focus was to prepare both for all possible scenarios. This worked very well and both drivers performed excellently in the races," said Patrick Arkenau, Division Manager Racing at Manthey Racing GmbH.

The next race and also the highlight of the season on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife for Manthey EMA is the 24-hour race from 30 May to 2 June 2024. "From a technical perspective, we are also very satisfied with where we currently stand in our preparations for the highlight of the season. Of course, it remains to be seen how the balance of power will be between the teams in the 24 Hours. But we are really looking forward to the event and feel well prepared," explains Arkenau. On the remaining six weekends until the endurance classic, Manthey has two 6-hour races of the FIA World Endurance Championship in Imola and Spa-Franchorchamps as well as two DTM sprint races in Oschersleben and at the Lausitzring on the season schedule.

Quotes on the 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers:

Ayhancan Güven, Porsche 911 GT3 R #911: "That was a very good weekend at the Nürburgring with the double podium for us. We made a big step forward, especially on Sunday, and I personally felt more and more comfortable in the Grello on the second day. With second and third place this weekend and the successes of Laurens and Kévin last weekend, we have already achieved four podium finishes. Now we will analyse the races in detail over the next six weeks in order to be even stronger at the start of the 24-hour race."

Thomas Preining, Porsche 911 GT3 R #911: "It was a successful weekend for us with two podium finishes. We were also able to tick off a lot of test points for the 24-hour race and Ayhancan and I were able to gain a lot of driving time. That's always important, especially in traffic on the Nordschleife. The anticipation for the 24-hour race is getting bigger and bigger. There were already a lot of fans at the track this weekend and I'm always happy about the great support."