Donar Munding decided early on in his career to race prototypes. The 20-year-old and Matthias Lüthen form the Mühlner duo. His father Marco used to drive for the Mühlner Motorsport team.
The Prototype Cup Germany as a springboard into prototype racing: The new racing series organised by the ADAC and Dutch promoter Creventic is an interesting alternative for talented young drivers, looking to make a career in the booming Le Mans prototype segment. One such driver is 20-year-old Donar Munding, who shares a Duqueine with Matthias Lüthen in the Mühlner Motorsport team. The duo finished fourth in race one at Spa-Francorchamps, narrowly missing out on a place on the podium, and is now hungry to back that success up at this weekend’s second round (15th to 17th July), which forms part of the support programme for the ADAC Truck Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.
Like many young racing drivers, Munding spent a number of years on the karting circuit. When the time came to step up into automobile racing, the seemingly logical route into Formula racing was not an option. “I simply did not have enough money. In Formula racing, you often come up against rivals, who have so much money at their disposal that they push the budgets even higher – for example, by doing a lot of testing or racing in two championships at the same time.” Munding turned to GT racing, starting in such series as the Porsche Sports Cup and the Nürburgring Endurance Series. “Even then, I used to like the prototypes. After all, there have been some fascinating and definitive eras in the history of prototypes, such as the Group C time and the periods, in which Audi lined up with diesel engines.” With the introduction of the Hypercar regulations by the organiser of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, ACO, races with Le Mans prototypes became an interesting option for the future career of the young man from Stuttgart.
Munding left GT racing in 2021 and initially signed up for the Michelin Le Mans Cup. Just one year later, he registered for the new Prototype Cup Germany. “A German driver in a German series makes sense to me – particularly as the ADAC is involved and I know from my time in karting that ADAC series work well.” However, the Mühlner driver also identified another advantage: “If I want to invite sponsors or partners, most of whom come from Germany in my case, then the trip to Hockenheim or the Nürburgring is far shorter than to Imola or Portimão, where the Le Mans Cup lines up this season. And with races on the support programme for the ADAC GT Masters and the ADAC Truck Grand Prix, we are also racing at decent events with a media presence.”
From a sporting perspective, an LMP3 car is a very different prospect to a GT race car, as Munding has found out for himself. “In LMP3, everything is far more direct, the cornering speeds are much higher, and you have to drive cleanly. However, I already knew a lot of that from karting, so the switch was no problem for me. An LMP3 is a real race car, as you can tell from the cockpit design.” Incidentally, the Munding family has a long a link to Mühlner Motorsport. “My father, Marco, drove for the team in the early 90s, in the DTC and at the Nürburgring. I also did a test in a Mühlner Cup Porsche at the end of 2019 or start of 2020. A little over two years later, it now turns out that Bernhard Mühlner’s team and I have been brought together, and I am very happy about that. Mühlner Motorsport has been in this business for a long time, always lines up with excellently prepared cars, and works independently. Even in stressful situations, which are part and parcel of motor racing, they act calmly and in a coordinated manner. They just know what to do, and that is very important to me.”
