The DTM champion will compete in the 24 Hours of Daytona.

      Our site had written about Ayhancan Güven only a few times — for example, in July last year, when the Turkish driver took part in the Formula E rookie tests held in Berlin. Incidentally, he posted the second-fastest time then, which was another confirmation of his professionalism.

      Later, in the autumn, Güven won the DTM title behind the wheel of a Porsche for the German team Manthey, and that’s no small feat. Manthey also won the team championship.

      Ayhancan, now a factory Porsche driver, then beat the experienced Austrian Lucas Auer by just 4 points; Auer races for Mercedes and, incidentally, is the nephew of Gerhard Berger, a Formula 1 veteran whose last major motorsport project was running this German touring car series — but that’s another story.

      At the end of January Güven will compete in the 24 Hours of Daytona in the GTD Pro category and will pilot Manthey Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 R. He will team up with Austrian drivers Klaus Bachler and Thomas Preining, and Swiss driver Ricardo Feller. Güven knows the latter two from DTM, and Bachler, moreover, was his teammate in that German series last season.

      The 28-year-old driver from Istanbul made his debut in the legendary Daytona marathon a year ago, and his crew finished second in their class.

      In 2026 Güven will contest the full season of the World Endurance Championship, where he will also race for Manthey as part of crew No. 91 alongside two teammates: 41-year-old Briton James Cottingham and Russian driver Timur Boguslavsky, competing under a neutral flag.