Manthey makes driver line-up changes for Watkins Glen

First-year IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup squad Manthey has announced driver changes for its return to the series in next week's Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen.

Due to clashes with the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa on the same weekend, regular Manthey IMSA drivers Ricardo Feller, Thomas Preining, and Morris Schuring will be in Belgium, so Manthey has added longtime Porsche works drivers Michael Christensen and Richard Lietz to the team, alongside talented youngster Loek Hartog, who will make his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut at Watkins Glen.

Christensen and Hartog will join Klaus Bachler in the No. 911 "Grello" Porsche 911 GT3 R that won GTD Pro last time out at Sebring, while Lietz will drive alongside Ryan Hardwick and Riccardo Pera in the No. 912 1st Phorm-sponsored GTD entry.

Christensen was part of the Porsche Penske Motorsport factory Hypercar program in the FIA World Endurance Championship from 2023-25 but has continued to make occasional IMSA appearances during that span. More recently, the Danish veteran contributed to AO Racing’s 2024 IMSA GTD Pro championship run.

A previous class winner at Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans, Christensen drove for the Manthey-operated Porsche GT Team in the WEC for six years, winning Le Mans in 2018 and the 2018-19 GTE Pro series title.

Though new to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Hartog has already starred with Manthey in last year's 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 2025/26 Asian Le Mans Series. The 23-year-old Dutchman won the Porsche Carrera Cup North America title in 2024, and has split time in 2026 between the Asian Le Mans Series, GT World Challenge America, Europe, and Asia, the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie, as well as the China GT Championship.

Lietz makes his second start in the No. 912 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche this year, returning for the first time since the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The Austrian driver is a two-time Daytona class winner and overall winner at the 2015 Petit Le Mans in Road Atlanta; he is coming off a disappointing outing at Le Mans where mechanical troubles took him out of the running for a seventh Le Mans class win.

The complete entry list for next Sunday's race at Watkins Glen is expected to be released later this week.