Thursday, the 16th of February 2017, will be a day which the current Cayman GT4 Trophy by Manthey-Racing champion will remember for a long time. This was the date on which Moritz Oberheim signed a driver contract and an apprenticeship contract with Manthey-Racing.
“When I took a seat in the Cayman GT4 Clubsport for the first time 14 months ago, I would never have anticipated that I am a part of the team today”, says the 19 years old driver after the signing of the contract with Nicolas and Martin Raeder, the Managing Directors of Manthey-Racing.
The way that Moritz Oberheim took in the last years was a continuous success story. He began in karting and then changed to race cars: Chevrolet Cruze Cup, VW Scirocco Cup, BMW 235i Racing Cup and Cayman GT4 Trophy, these are the stations which the young man from Schermbeck in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, has passed very successfully so far. “I’ve always had the dream to become a professional race driver and the make of Porsche was of course on top of my list”, is Oberheim’s answer onto the question about his ambitions.
Thomas Raquet, Manthey-Racing executive manager and responsible for the Cayman GT4 Trophy which runs as part of the VLN, significantly contributed to this new project. It was actually Raquet who became aware of the young and reserved Oberheim during the season 2016 and prepared the contract with the Raeder brothers.
The contract does not only include the engagement of Oberheim as driver for the season 2017 but also the completion of his apprenticeship as automotive mechatronics specialist at Manthey-Racing. This was just in time because, in addition to the team from Meuspath near the Nürburgring in which the Porsche AG has a share of 51 percent, there were some other teams and manufacturers which had also been interested in Oberheim.
“The combination of working on the race car and driving races is of course perfect. The professional environment helps me a lot to further develop my knowledge and my understanding of the race car”, says the new junior in team of Manthey-Racing. The project in the season 2017 will be concentrated on participations in VLN tests and races in the GT4 Clubsport MR and on other SP-X projects.
Beyond that, the glaring Porsche 911 GT3 R of Mantehy-Racing stands in the hall just a few meters apart – so the future could look quite colourful for Moritz Oberheim.
