After the cancellation of the VLN Nürburgring Endurance Series (NLS) pre-season test last week due to winter temperatures, the season starts in earnest this weekend with the 66. ADAC Westfalenfahrt.
➤ 144 cars are entered for the first race of the season. Of those, 28 are GT3s, three Porsche 991.2 GT3 Cup MRs are entered in the SP7 class (#69 Clickversicherung.de Team Chrzanowski Racing, #57 Black Falcon Team Textar) and SPPRO (#350 Black Falcon Team Identica), two Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars are entered in SP7 (#80 Huber Motorsport) and Cup2 (#120 9und11 Racing Team), and six GT4s in SP10/GT4 and a few more scattered throughout the SP classes. CupX (KTM X-Bow GT4) and Cup3 (Porsche Cayman GT4 Trophy) also house GT4 machinery. You can find the full entry list HERE.
➤ After SP9/GT3, the largest class is VT2 with 17 cars. It is likely the VLN champion will come from this BMW-dominated group due to the large number of contestants and the number of SP9/GT3 entrants traditionally dropping off after the Nürburgring 24 Hours.
➤ Despite the possibility of Kissling Motorsport retiring its Opel Manta, cooler heads have prevailed. The fan-favourite car will start in the H2 class for historic cars with Olaf Beckmann, Peter Hass, Volker Strycek and Jürgen Schulten driving.
➤ While no longer a Cup class within VLN, the remaining BMW M240i Racing Cup cars have been given their own class to contest in. BMW’s new M2 CS Racing has taken over the Cup5 class and starts its new era with eleven cars.
➤ CupX is now also open for the KTM X-Bow GTX, giving a much-needed boost to the X-Bow Cup class. In addition to four all-Teichmann Racing-entered KTM X-Bow GT4s, four GTX models are debuting at the Nordschleife. Two of those come from KTM dealer Teichmann Racing, one from KTM Sportcar itself, and one is from the independent team Mcchip-dkr.
➤ The Porsche Cayman GT4 Trophy by Manthey Racing is also seeing another successful start to the new year with no less than 16 cars showing up.
➤ Two-time VLN champion, ADAC GT4 Germany champion, and multiple Nürburgring 24 Hours class winner Michael Schrey enters his third GT4 season with Hofor Racing by Bonk. He is again joined aboard the BMW M4 GT4 by co-drivers Gabriele Piana and Michael Fischer. Schrey will also compete in ADAC GT4 Germany, DTM Trophy and selected 24H Series races.
➤ Haupt Racing Team announced its driver line-up for the works cars it will enter in the Nürburgring 24 Hours. Patrick Assenheimer, Nico Bastian, Maro Engel and Hubert Haupt will drive the #6 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo; and Adam Christodoulou, Manuel Metzger and Luca Stolz are joined by doubly-duty Maro Engel aboard the #16 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. With the exception of Engel in the always-fast #16 Mercedes-AMG, this is also the NLS1 line-up for the Hubert Haupt-owned squad.
➤ Long-time Black Falcon and Haupt Racing Team driver Yelmer Buurman won’t be with Haupt Racing Team this year as the Dutchman joins the #22 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of 10Q Racing Team — that team’s season will start later. Buurman will race together with Thomas Jäger, Kenneth Heyer and Dominik Baumann.
➤ W&S Motorsport finalised its driver line-up in recent weeks. Completing the army of drivers for its four-car fleet are Daniel Blickle, Tim Scheerbarth and Max Kronberg. The trio will pilot the #960 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS in the Cayman Trophy.
➤ Some good looking new liveries this year come from KCMG and Huber Motorsport.
A first look at our Porsche GT3-R donning its new livery for 2021 – After a long wait, we’re all set for track action this weekend at @nuerburgring! @PorscheRaces @aleximperatori @MarcoHolzer @edoardoliberati @JoshBurdon @vln_de @24hNBR pic.twitter.com/vI594vfgtW
— KC Motorgroup (KCMG) (@KCMotorgroup) March 25, 2021
Images by SIEGERDESIGNS.com.
➤ The 2021 season gets underway on Friday 26 March with the rescheduled pre-season test before the season-opening race on Saturday. FULL SCHEDULE.
➤ You can watch NLS1 live on GT REPORT. LIVE STREAM
➤ You can find the 2021 VLN Nürburgring Endurance Series entry list on our dedicated page listing all GT3 entries.
➤ The weather will be typical for this time of the year at the Nürburgring: while Friday will be cloudy but dry with temperatures around 11 degrees Celsius, the forecast for race day calls for 6 degrees and rain and possibly even snow during the morning. The morning rain transitions to light rain during the race.
https://twitter.com/nuerburgring/status/1375158699820527619
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