Manthey's LMGT3 dominance a reward for hard work

Manthey 1st Phorm’s run to fourth from 17th on the grid to secure the 2025 LMGT3 Teams’ and Drivers’ championships in last night’s 8 Hours of Bahrain was a stunning performance which shouldn’t be overlooked.

The longstanding German Porsche outfit, based in the Eifel region, has been the class of the LMGT3 field since the category’s debut at the start of last season, collecting a sweep of titles in both WEC seasons and a pair of wins at the Le Mans 24 Hours. But while the roll of honour suggests firm dominance and a stroll in the park, the 2025 campaign for Richard Lietz, Ryan Hardwick and Riccardo Pera was anything but.

The two wins at Imola and Le Mans stood out, but it was the crew’s ability to finish in the points at every race after a disappointing start to the season in Qatar that made the difference.

“This championship, and along with winning Le Mans, is definitely the highlight of my driving career and also my life,” Tennessee native Ryan Hardwick, who also has ELMS GTE title-winning success and a Jet-Ski World Championship amongst the items on his diverse sporting CV, said post-race.

“I mean, like all drivers, my story is I spent most of my life racing other things and building businesses, but it's my life's work to lead me to this point. You know, with this team this year, I have the opportunity to drive with these guys. It’s a dream come true to be racing in the world championship in a Porsche, racing against the Ferrari for most of the season, which, to me, is just like you can't write it any better.

“And it comes down to the final race, and we were battling all the way to the end, and finishing within one position of each other. So we had great competition all year. I wouldn't want to have it any other way. Wouldn't want to do it with any other team, wouldn't want to do it with any other co-drivers.”

Hardwick, who has become the third American driver to win a WEC GT title after Patrick Lindsey and Ben Keating, took pride in the team’s ability to overcome the odds to take the title.

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“I’ll tell you the truth,” he explained. “This team hasn't had our backs against the wall like that the entire season. I mean, we didn't lack confidence, but we did have this belief. I didn't know how we would do it, but I believed somehow, some way, that our engineers would figure the car out and get it turned around. And sure enough, they did. I mean, it was from the first laps.

“It was a drastically improved car than what we had all through practice and qualifying, and it was just a real pleasure to drive. But I never stopped believing. I mean, if you compete at this level and you don't believe in yourself, you have no business being here.

“So yes, I believed we would make it. I'm a bit surprised that I was able to get us from the back all the way to the top five during the first three hours, and that was some of the most fun I've ever had in a race car, anything. And yeah, we never fell short on belief, but we definitely knew what the challenge was.”

Both Hardwick and Pera have a first WEC title to celebrate tonight at the end-of-season Awards Ceremony on the beach in Bahrain, while Lietz has a second. Yesterday’s push was the 41-year-old Austrian's first title in a decade, following on from his success with Porsche’s factory GTE Pro team in 2015, adding to a stellar career with the iconic brand.

Manthey’s success for Porsche served as a tonic on a tough night for its Hypercar efforts operated by Penske and Proton, which ended on a low note. All three 963s failed to finish in the top 10 and the factory cars missed out on the titles as a result in Porsche Penske Motorsport’s final WEC start.

“This success story in the LMGT3 category is hard to beat: two class wins at Le Mans and the championship titles in LMGT3 are no small achievement,” emphasized Sebastian Golz, Project Manager Porsche 911 GT3 R.

“The teams at Manthey in Meuspath and at Porsche Motorsport in Weissach can be proud of the foundation they have built and the results they have fought for on track.”