Nürburgring Endurance Series

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Nürburgring Endurance Series

Country	Germany
Inaugural season	1977
Official website	www.vln.de
Current season

The Nürburgring Endurance Series^[1] (NLS, German: Nürburgring Langstrecken Serie) is an organisation of motorsport clubs of which each hosts one event of a nine-race series held on the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

Participants of NLS races range from amateurs in small road legal cars with rollcages and harnesses to professional factory teams racing Group GT3 cars. The NLS series is closely associated with the 24 Hours Nürburgring, as it has similar rules (mostly), and mainly the same participants. In the calendar, several weeks around the 24h date in May/June are taken off to allow teams to prepare for the 24h, and to fix their cars afterwards. The 24h is not part of the championship anymore, though.

Touring cars passing in front of the Nürburg

Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 on the 'Ring

Name[]

The series was formerly known as VLN (German: Veranstaltergemeinschaft Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring, Association of Nürburgring Endurance Cup Organisers). The series was named "BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft (BFGLM)" from 2001 to 2009.

History[]

The VLN was founded in 1977 by several motorsport clubs, which are members of ADAC or Deutscher Motorsport Verband (DMV), in order to join forces. Previously, each club had run its own touring car racing event on the Nürburgring, lasting for 3.5 to 6 hours, with about 150 cars and 400 drivers taking part. The rules were unified and the races were made part of a series.

The winners of the series were awarded a Cup (German Pokal), sponsored by Valvoline and later Veedol lubrication products. Due to this, both organisation and races were simply informally called "Veedol-Cup" for many years. Since the change of sponsorship and the official recognition by Deutscher Motor Sport Bund (DMSB) as the German endurance championship (German Meisterschaft) in 2001, the former Veedol Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring was the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring. The championship was renamed the NLS in 2020, however the name of the VLN organisation stays the same.

Apart from the 24 Hours, the Rundstrecken Challenge Nürburgring (RCN/CHC) and GLP are related smaller events dedicated to non-professionals.

Races[]

Each VLN race is held as a "one-day event" on Saturdays only, in order to limit costs. The mandatory drivers briefing is at 07:30, practice is from 08:20 to 10:00, following a warmup lap behind safety cars, the first of three groups starts the race at 12:00, followed by the other two a few minutes later, in time before the fastest cars complete their first lap in just over 8 minutes. After parc fermé is opened and the winners are honoured, the teams can travel home on race day. At some events, the schedule also accommodates additional sprint races of visiting other series, mainly classic cars and youngtimers.

The "Nürburgring 6 Hours" is considered the season highlight – in 1998, even Sir Jack Brabham took part, at age 72. Here, 2 to 4 drivers per cars are entered, while in all others races, a single driver can drive all alone for 4 hours, or up to 3 can form a team. There are two other standout races – the VLN-6 "Barbarossapreis", in which Michael Schumacher's success with Scuderia Ferrari in Formula One is honoured with all podium placegetters receiving red wigs; and the VLN-9 "Münsterlandpokal" or "Schinkenrennen" (ham race), where large pieces of ham from the Münsterland area are presented to class winners.

Most of the fans watch the race on the Nordschleife. To get to the favourite viewing points it is often necessary to take a walk. Several sections, including "Schwedenkreuz", "Adenauer Forst", "Karussell", and "Wippermann", are up to a kilometer away from the nearest main road. Easy to reach and always well attended are sections such as "Breidscheid", "Brünnchen", and "Pflanzgarten". Around the whole Nordschleife no entrance fee is raised. Just for the paddock and the grandstands on the Grand Prix circuit of the Nürburgring tickets for the price of 18 € are required.

Car classes[]

A variety of cars compete at the same time during each race. In the 2009 season, there were 30 classes of cars in four divisions.

• The Series Cars division is intended to allow relatively low cost racing with near-series cars. It consists of six gasoline classes differentiated by engine displacement V1 to V6 and a diesel class VD.
• The Specials division consists of pure race cars that may compete in other race series. It consists of the classes SP1 to SP8 differentiated by engine displacement with an optional suffix T for turbo charged engines, the SP9 class for FIA GT3 cars, the SP10 class for SRO GT4 cars, the special E1-XP 2009 class and the D1T to D4T classes differentiated by engine displacement for diesel cars.
• The Cup division consists of one-make cup cars in the classes Cup1: Seat Leon, Cup2: Honda Civic R, Cup3: Porsche Carrera Cup.
• The H division consists of cars made in 1996 and before. It consists of the classes H1 to H4 differentiated by engine displacement.

Member organisations[]

• ADAC-Westfalen e.V.
• Renngemeinschaft Düren e.V. DMV
• AC Altkreis Schwelm e.V. im ADAC
• MSC Adenau e.V. im ADAC
• Dortmunder MC e.V. im ADAC
• Rheydter Club für Motorsport e.V. DMV
• MSC Ruhr-Blitz Bochum e.V. im ADAC
• MSC Sinzig e.V. im ADAC
• AC Monheim e.V. DMV
• MSC Münster e.V. DMV

Champions[]

Year	Driver(s)	Car	Team
	Ernst Thierfelder	Simca Rallye	ETH Tuning
	Hans Weisgerber	BMW 2002	MSTC Erbach
	Wolfgang Kudrass Norbert Schiffbauer	Audi 50	Veytal Tuning
	Johannes Scheid	Autobianchi A112	Scheid-Motorsport
	Johannes Scheid Reinhold Köster	Fiat 127 Sport	Scheid-Motorsport
	Arno Wester Walter Jirak	Volkswagen Golf GTi	Tannenkamp Motorsport
	Karl-Heinz Schäfer	Opel Kadett GT/E	Mich Tuning
	Heinrich Sprungmann Dierk Meyer	Volkswagen Golf GTi	VAG Sprungmann Essen
	Karl-Heinz Kuhlendahl	Volkswagen Scirocco	Nothelle Motorsport
	Herbert Kummle	Ford Escort RS2000	Pontus Racing
	Ludwig Nett Jürgen Nett	Peugeot 205 GTi	Nett Tuning
	Wolfgang Schrey Günter Schrey	Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16	Team Matter Sicherheit
	Lutz-Wilhelm Höhl	Volkswagen Polo Coupé	Veytal Tuning
	Heinz-Otto Fritzsche Jürgen Fritzsche	Opel Kadett GSi 16V	Mantzel Tuning
	Heinz-Otto Fritzsche Jürgen Fritzsche	Opel Kadett GSi 16V	Mantzel Tuning
	Dirk Adorf Guido Thierfelder	Citroën AX Sport	ETH Tuning
	Heinz-Otto Fritzsche Roland Senge	Opel Astra GSi 16V	Kissling Motorsport
	Johannes Scheid Hans Widmann	BMW M3	Scheid-Motorsport
	Johannes Scheid Hans Widmann	BMW M3	Scheid-Motorsport
	Dirk Adorf Thomas Winkelhock	Opel Astra GSi 16V	Günther Müller Sports
	Dirk Adorf Heinz-Josef "Juppi" Bermes	Opel Astra GSi 16V	Mühlner Motorsport
	Johannes Scheid Sabine Reck	BMW M3	Scheid-Motorsport
	Peter Zakowski Hans-Jürgen Tiemann	Chrysler Viper	Zakspeed Racing
	Jens Lührsen Uwe Unteroberdörster	Suzuki Swift	Fleper-Motorsport
	Klaus-Peter Thaler Heinz Remmen	Opel Astra GSi 16V	Kissling Motorsport
	Mario Merten	BMW 318iS	Bonk Motorsport
	Heinz-Otto Fritzsche Jürgen Fritzsche	Opel Corsa C	Kissling Motorsport
	Arnd Meier René Wolff	BMW 318iS	SAX Racing
	Claudia Hürtgen	BMW 320	Schubert Motorsport
	Mario Merten "Wolf Silvester" (Wolfgang Dess)	BMW 318iS	Bonk Motorsport
	Heinz-Otto Fritzsche Jürgen Fritzsche Marco Wolf	Opel Astra	Kissling Motorsport
	Alexander Böhm Matthias Unger	BMW 325i	Black Falcon
	Alexander Böhm Seán Paul Breslin Christer Jöns	BMW 325i	Black Falcon
2010	Mario Merten "Wolf Silvester" (Wolfgang Dess)	BMW Z4	Bonk Motorsport
2011	Carsten Knechtges Manuel Metzger Tim Scheerbarth	BMW Z4	Black Falcon
2012	Ulrich Andree Dominik Brinkmann Christian Krognes	Volkswagen Scirocco GT24	LMS Engineering
2013	Dirk Groneck Tim Groneck	Renault Clio	Groneck Motorsport
2014	Rolf Derscheid Michael Flehmer	BMW 325i	Derscheid Motorsport
2015	Dirk Groneck Tim Groneck	Renault Clio	Groneck Motorsport
2016	Alexander Mies Michael Schrey	BMW M325i Racing Cup	Bonk Motorsport
2017	Michael Schrey	BMW M325i Racing Cup	Bonk Motorsport
2018	Philipp Leisen Christopher Rink Danny Brink	BMW 325i	Adrenalin Motorsport
2019	Yannick Fübrich David Griessner	BMW M240i Racing Cup	Adrenalin Motorsport
2020	Philipp Leisen Christopher Rink Danny Brink	BMW 325i	Adrenalin Motorsport
2021	Philipp Leisen Danny Brink	BMW 325i	Adrenalin Motorsport
Sources:[2][3]

Notable drivers[]

See also[]

• Auteg Motorsport
• Manthey Racing

References[]

External links[]

• Official website (in German)
• Official website (in English)
• VLN champions
• 24 Hours of Nürburgring Race (2006; from archive.org)
• VLN Divisions and Classes (in German)
• To take part in one of the VLN races