Hardwick: “Historical Moment” for Manthey to Race in IMSA

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

Ryan Hardwick believes it’s a “historical moment” for Manthey to expand its race operations into North America and compete in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next year.

Hardwick, who is currently driving for the German squad in the FIA World Endurance Championship, was confirmed as the first driver in Manthey’s two-car Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo program for the 2026 Michelin Endurance Cup campaign, which will include a GTD Pro entry featuring the team’s ‘Grello’ livery made famous with its record seven overall victories in the Nürburgring 24.

For the Bronze-rated American driver, who leads the WEC LMGT3 championship entering next weekend’s season-ending 8 Hours of Bahrain, the opportunity to rejoin the WeatherTech Championship in the GTD class for its biggest races came as a logical choice.

“I really enjoy racing at the top levels of the sport and really enjoy doing it with truly great teams,” Hardwick told Sportscar365. “I’ve been so blessed to be part of Manthey’s organization this past year with our World Endurance Championship [effort]. They’ve been so successful there.

“We’re back-to-back winners at Le Mans and defending champions from last year and currently leading the championship this year with one more race to go.

“I’ve really enjoyed my time, both of my teammates and co-drivers, as well as all of the mechanics and engineers. It’s truly a first-class organization.

“They started talking about internally, ‘At what point would it make sense for Manthey to come race in North America?’

“They were talking about it over the summer. They’re growing their business a lot in North America with the sale of their Manthey kits for Porsche street cars; that business is really growing a lot for them. Rightfully so, because they can turn a GT3 RS street car into dang near a Porsche Cup car.

“They’ve always wanted to come race over here. They’ve been over here in different capacities with engineering support for other teams, so they know a lot about the tracks and the racing here, but they’ve always wanted to do it themselves with their full team.

“A lot of things came together for them, on their side, and they came to me and said, ‘We’re going with the Grello and going to do a full GTD Pro effort [in Endurance Cup]. It would be really awesome if we could do two cars’ and wanted to know if myself and 1st Phorm would be interested.

“For me personally and also for 1st Phorm, our sponsor, it makes a lot of sense racing in North America. I’m from here and our businesses are based here in North America and all of our customers are based here.

“We really enjoy racing on the world’s stage but for personal and business reasons it’s nice to race in North America.”

Hardwick, a previous GTD class winner in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, both with longtime Porsche customer squad Wright Motorsports, said he’s “super honored” to be part of Manthey’s IMSA program.

“I think it’s a very historical moment for Porsche, racing here in North America, to bring Manthey, their most successful and decorated team, coming to IMSA in a livery as storied as the Grello, it’s going to be really awesome to see that car running the banks of Daytona and over the bumps at Sebring,” he said.

“Also our 1st Phorm Porsche, I think, has become quite iconic in North America. That bright blue Porsche has won a lot of races over here and has been a fan favorite. For us to be able to bring that livery back alongside the Grello is going to be really cool.

“Another cool thing, to me, is that the Nos. 911 and 912 have been so iconic with Porsche’s factory racing cars in North America for so long. For our cars to adorn those two numbers is quite special.

“I’m super honored to have the No. 912 on the car I’ll be in next year and hopefully represent Porsche quite well as what their factory teams did for so many years.”

No Decision On Possible Dual Program for 2026

Hardwick said there’s been no decision made on whether he, or the team for that matter, will undertake parallel programs in the Endurance Cup and WEC next year.

Porsche’s LMGT3 entries in the world championship are subject to approval from the WEC selection committee amid the German manufacturer’s factory exit from Hypercar competition.

“I haven’t right now made that decision, nor has Manthey,” said Hardwick. “The IMSA Endurance Cup is the first thing that we can confirm.

“It would be really nice to continue in both. Obviously our focus is fully set on winning the championship this year. That’s goal No. 1. Once we get through that, then I think we’ll be able to make our decisions on the rest of what 2026 has in store.”

When asked if he would personally like to take part in a double program, Hardwick admitted it would be a “huge commitment.”

“For me, it’s not only the financial aspect of it but it’s also the time,” he said. “They are all my favorite races in the world.

“For the eight World Endurance Championship races and the five endurance races in IMSA, to me those are the best 13 races in the world.

“It would be awesome to do them all together. I’ve been able to do it in the past, and for me that’s like the perfect year of racing.

“It’s tough to do it all, especially with all the travel and my family and business commitments.

“I had a year this year that’s pretty hard to beat in WEC. I’d like to end it as champion but we’ll see what happens there.

“But winning Le Mans and the WEC race in Imola, one of my favorite tracks in the world, this year is going to be tough to top.

“I’m really looking forward to coming back to IMSA and the challenges here. We’ll see what plays out in the WEC as we finish out the season.”

Jonathan Grace contributed to this report

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John