German OEMs: Nordschleife Must Preserve “Full Spectrum”

Photo: Gruppe C Photography

Manufacturer figures from BMW, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche have all agreed that entry-level categories must be preserved on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, amid ongoing developments over the future of the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie following a recent challenge from the promoters of the Nürburgring 24.

Announced in July, ADAC Nordrhein revealed plans to launch its own five-event, six-round championship for next year in a bid against the long-standing NLS series, which was previously known as VLN.

This immediately led to a response from NLS, owned in part by neighboring ADAC clubs, stating that Nordschleife motorsport needs solidarity rather than competing series that would ultimately both be vying for limited race slots allocated per year.

However, in September, plans were shelved for the proposed new series, officially delaying it until 2028, although the situation has remained in flux over what the long-term outlook could look like, particularly as the ADAC Nordrhein-led group’s initiative for a more commercialized GT3-based product, on the heels of this year’s record-breaking crowd fueled by Max Verstappen’s N24 debut.

“It’s a bit of a tricky situation, and also for us as a manufacturer,” BMW M Motorsport director Andreas Roos told Sportscar365.

“For sure we love the Nürburgring Nordschleife and also the 24-hour race and generally all the endurance races that are around the Nordscheliefe with NLS and all of this.

“It’s very important because in the end, the whole Nürburgring/NLS and also the 24-hour race, it’s not only about GT3 cars racing there.

“It’s multi-class racing and when you look there, there’s a lot of BMWs running in, let’s say, lower categories. But they are also fighting for their class wins and everything.

“We have to make sure that we have a strong platform where everyone from the amateur to the pro can find their space.”

Speaking from his own personal viewpoint, Head of Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Stefan Wendl indicated that he doesn’t believe two series, seeking many of the same GT3 entrants, would be financially viable.

The Nürburgring Endurance Series, a similar threat to NLS, was launched two years ago but ultimately failed due to lack of entries.

“I think potentially from a GT3 perspective, it’s very difficult to raise the funding for a full championship out of 11 races,” Wendl told Sportscar365. “It’s very expensive to do those long races.

“It means a reduction of races from a GT3 perspective is maybe even beneficial.

“But this is not the soul of the motorsport in this region. For those races with 150 participants, you need all the small cars, you need the Cup cars and they need to run healthy and have potentially long-lasting contracts.

“This is something that needs to be taken into consideration.

“I started my motorsport career at the Nordschleife in VLN races. I know this race series means a lot for the whole region, for everything, for accommodation, for restaurants and everything around. There’s a lot of business going around.

“That’s why I think it’s important to keep the number of races at the Nordschleife constant.

“At the same time, you have to stay with open eyes also to changes in environment. Grids are not filled for every single race. If promoters cannot potentially run those events in green numbers.”

Porsche Motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach added: “We think it’s great that [there’s] GT3 racing. But we also need to take care of the entry levels, the Cup series.

“We have to make sure that this environment, this ecosystem of racing at the Nordschleife, keeps at least on the level where it is today or even better improved because we want to be able to race there. We want to be able to have our customers race there.”

Roos, meanwhile, acknowledged the allure of the initially planned points-paying championship around the N24, which is not currently the case with NLS, but stressed that the current class structure needs to stay intact.

“At the end we really have to make sure that there is still the racing from the amateur to the pro and for all the teams which are racing at the Nordschleife,” he said. “I’m not talking about, only on our side, like ROWE or Schubert.

“I’m talking about the smaller teams which runs their business around the Nordschleife. This is why it’s very important, also for us, that this character somehow stays alive.

“How, in the end, it looks look, I can’t be involved as BMW. That’s up to the promoters to find their way.

“For us, it’s important that we can race in the whole spectrum.”

Finlay Ringer contributed to this report

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John