In IMSA’s GTD Pro class, two Porsche customer teams have turned the season into a heavyweight fight. AO Racing is the young American upstart with a gift for winning fans. Manthey is the German racing institution built on three decades of precision. Both run the Porsche 911 GT3 R. Everything else about them is different.
At Sebring, those differences came into focus. In the darkness of the 12-hour race, AO’s pink Roxy faced Manthey’s yellow-and-green Grello. The teams had raced each other before, including at Le Mans, but never in IMSA with all-pro driver lineups. Same car, different cultures—and the makings of a serious rivalry.
AO Racing – a success story born out of imagination
AO Racing has accomplished what most factory teams can only envy: It has become a fan phenomenon. Rexy, its green dinosaur-themed 911, and pink sister Roxy draw crowds to the paddock, merchandise stands, and autograph sessions.
The idea began almost by accident. AO founders Phillip Jeffrey (P. J.) Hyett and Gunnar Jeannette met at a Porsche Track Days event in 2022. “P. J. would come flying through each corner, drifting around, in his 911 R,” Jeannette laughs. “It was clear he didn’t have much experience with race cars, but he showed great control over the car and had a lot of natural talent.”
Before a family trip to Le Mans, Hyett asked Jeannette for advice. “I asked him whether he’d prefer to just watch or if he’d like to take part in a race.” Hyett chose racing, quickly showed promise in Porsche Sprint Challenge, and later shared a WEC podium with Jeannette in Bahrain.
“P. J. then had the idea of setting up his own racing team – something I initially tried to talk him out of,” Jeannette recalls, laughing. “Fortunately, I didn’t succeed.”
AO Racing was founded in late 2022. The dinosaur came from Hyett’s children, who suggested a dinosaur and unicorn for his helmet. Then came the obvious next step. “After Daytona, we sat down and discussed the car design for Sebring. Then P. J. turned and said: ‘Why don’t we just turn the car into a dinosaur?’ I loved the idea!”
Rexy debuted at Sebring with teeth across the nose and became an instant hit. AO leaned into the character, carrying the theme through driver suits, helmets, mechanics’ uniforms, and the paddock. After a rear-end collision, Rexy appeared with braces. Following AO’s 2024 IMSA championship, he gained a gold tooth. Halloween brought a skeleton livery.
Today Rexy is a global brand, appearing on everything from shirts and toys to model cars and a LEGO® Technic set. But Jeannette insists the showmanship hasn’t displaced the mission: “Competition is still our number-one priority.”
The results support him. AO won the 2024 IMSA GTD Pro team championship, while Porsche factory driver Laurin Heinrich took the drivers’ title.
Then came Roxy. “We wanted to create a second character, so we came up with the idea of a girl dinosaur for P. J.’s daughter’s birthday,” Gunnar Jeannette reveals. “We’re going to use her in two races per season.” After Sebring, the plan was appropriately theatrical: “We’re also sending her to Long Beach. Roxy’s going to Hollywood!”
Manthey – a business model based on perfection
If AO has Rexy and Roxy, Manthey has Grello. The neon yellow-and-green Porsche is already an icon at the Nürburgring and beyond, representing a team where expectations are brutally simple.
“We’ve set a very high bar for ourselves,” says managing director and team principal Nicolas Raeder, who runs Manthey together with his brother Martin. “Wherever Grello goes, he must be in the mix to win.”
“Wherever Grello goes, he must be in the mix to win.” Nicolas Raeder
Founded by Olaf Manthey, the Eifel-based operation celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Since the Raeder brothers took over and Porsche acquired a stake in 2013, Manthey has grown from 40 employees to more than 350 across Racing, Road Cars, Race Cars, and Experience.
“We were working at a very professional level right from the beginning,” says Raeder.
Grello arrived in 2016, its name simply combining green and yellow. “I used to have a bike that color back in the nineties,” Nicolas Raeder explains. The car developed its own following, amplified by Manthey’s DTM championships in 2023 and 2025.
The racing record is formidable. Manthey won the LMGT3 class at Le Mans in 2024 and 2025 and collected team and drivers’ titles in the FIA WEC. Demand followed. “We now receive so many enquiries we’re simply not able to respond to them all,” says Nicolas Raeder.
This season alone, Manthey competes in the Asian Le Mans Series, DTM, IMSA, NLS, FIA WEC, and Intercontinental GT Challenge. Across the company, the calendar exceeds 150 events.
The machinery matters, but Manthey credits its people. “We give everybody on our team the chance to keep reinventing themselves,” explains Martin Raeder. “Our engineers sit down and come up with new ideas all the time. They have a lot of freedom and great passion for what they do.”
That engineering culture has produced proprietary software for analyzing vehicle data and optimizing setups, along with tire-heating tents, portable wheel-measurement equipment, and ultimately the “Equipment for Rennsport” business unit. IMSA is both another racing challenge and an entry point into the North American market for Manthey’s Porsche road-car products.
The contrast is hard to miss. Manthey brings decades of experience, engineering discipline, and a relentless pursuit of perfection. AO Racing brings imagination, personality, and the fearlessness of a newcomer that has already won an IMSA championship.
At Sebring, the philosophies finally collided. Late in the race, only fractions of a second separated Roxy and Grello. Then headlights appeared from the slipstream. Grello swept past and took the GTD Pro victory—Manthey’s first IMSA win in only its second start. “That was a typical Manthey win,” says Klaus Bachler, part of the trio of drivers piloting Grello alongside Thomas Preining and Ricardo Feller. “We made no mistakes. We had a perfect strategy and a reliable car.”
Rexy and Roxy will get another shot. And if Sebring was any indication, the fight between Porsche’s most recognizable GT3 Rs is just getting started.
Above contents © 2026 Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG reviewed and edited by Rex McAfee , @rexmcafee 🏁
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