diff --git a/theodolite-quarkus/config/example-benchmark-yaml-resource.yaml b/theodolite-quarkus/config/example-benchmark-yaml-resource.yaml
index a5f0b16ae6e3b3335911836fe3d58e817004e23b..ebc2fe9e44fe303e342cabee301cb63664867cfb 100644
--- a/theodolite-quarkus/config/example-benchmark-yaml-resource.yaml
+++ b/theodolite-quarkus/config/example-benchmark-yaml-resource.yaml
@@ -27,5 +27,5 @@ kafkaConfig:
     - name: "input"
       numPartitions: 40
       replicationFactor: 1
-    - name: "theodolite"
+    - name: "theodolite-.*"
       removeOnly: True
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/theodolite-quarkus/config/example-operator-benchmark.yaml b/theodolite-quarkus/config/example-operator-benchmark.yaml
index 93b42e8690c3b9f432aea1c6711ee0118d14adb3..3ed5218d8a8988b130e8d549c120cbca7329ffe3 100644
--- a/theodolite-quarkus/config/example-operator-benchmark.yaml
+++ b/theodolite-quarkus/config/example-operator-benchmark.yaml
@@ -30,4 +30,6 @@ kafkaConfig:
   topics:
     - name: "input"
       numPartitions: 40
-      replicationFactor: 1
\ No newline at end of file
+      replicationFactor: 1
+    - name: "theodolite-.*"
+      removeOnly: True
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/theodolite-quarkus/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/k8s/TopicManager.kt b/theodolite-quarkus/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/k8s/TopicManager.kt
index d58b06fa22b95c0e107e4d80828b23a53c2d927b..1367f625808059f9e1a56f8be40c14e6f70e356d 100644
--- a/theodolite-quarkus/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/k8s/TopicManager.kt
+++ b/theodolite-quarkus/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/k8s/TopicManager.kt
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ class TopicManager(private val kafkaConfig: Map<String, Any>) {
      */
     private fun matchRegex(existingTopic: String, topics: List<String>): Boolean {
         for (t in topics) {
-            val regex = ("$t.*").toRegex()
+                val regex = t.toRegex()
             if (regex.matches(existingTopic)) {
                 return true
             }
diff --git a/theodolite-quarkus/src/main/resources/operator/example-benchmark-k8s-resource.yaml b/theodolite-quarkus/src/main/resources/operator/example-benchmark-k8s-resource.yaml
index 122daec9bbda57bfb601157521ff98e782d56190..19ec972be8236fbdcad123e9c9ef63945bb53d16 100644
--- a/theodolite-quarkus/src/main/resources/operator/example-benchmark-k8s-resource.yaml
+++ b/theodolite-quarkus/src/main/resources/operator/example-benchmark-k8s-resource.yaml
@@ -27,5 +27,5 @@ kafkaConfig:
     - name: "input"
       numPartitions: 40
       replicationFactor: 1
-    - name: "theodolite"
+    - name: "theodolite-.*"
       removeOnly: True
\ No newline at end of file