Preining to Remain With Manthey EMA for Title Defense

Thomas Preining will return to DTM next year to defend his title with the Manthey EMA operation.

The Austrian driver is set to compete in DTM for a third consecutive season, remaining with the team operated by brothers Nicki and Martin Raeder and piloting a Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The announcement was made Saturday evening during Porsche’s “Night of Champions” event in Weissach.

Preining debuted in the championship in 2022 with KÜS Team Bernhard. While driving for the Timo Bernhard led-stable, he became Porsche’s first DTM race winner by taking victory at the Norisring.

A second race victory propelled him to fifth in the championship before moving to join the debuting Manthey EMA partnership a year later.

Three further race wins, two of which came as part of a clean sweep during the Hockenheim finale weekend, saw Preining defeat SSR Performance driver Mirko Bortolotti in a championship showdown to become the first Austrian champion in series history.

The 25-year-old recently tested the Porsche 963 LMDh car at the FIA World Endurance Championship Rookie Test in Bahrain, where Preining already indicated to Sportscar365 that he intended to return to defend his title.

Manthey EMA, Porsche and Preining will once again be going up against the ABT Sportsline pairing of Kelvin van der Linde and Ricardo Feller next year.

The German squad, which finished third in the drivers’ standings with Feller, confirmed an unchanged driver lineup in October.

The DTM season is set to kick off at Oschersleben on April 27-28.