The ADAC Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie goes back-to-back this weekend: NLS7 on Saturday and NLS8 on Sunday, both four-hour blasts across the Nordschleife. It is the decisive stretch of a ten-round season, and the entry sheets comes with proper storylines.

Headlines at the front

Three-time 2025 race winning team Falken Motorsports brings its two Porsche 911 GT3 R entries and the eye-catcher is Benny Leuchter’s first start in a GT3, paired with Tim Heinemann. Leuchter nearly won NLS-Light in July with the Falken Tyres-supported Max Kruse Racing VW VW Golf GTI Clubsport 24h, leading the race until a failure forced the Golf to retire from the lead.

 That alone would be news enough, yet Sunday adds a fan favourite: Frikadelli Racing rolls its Ferrari 296 GT3 back out for NLS8 with Klaus Abbelen driving solo and openly talking about a fuller return next year.

“We’re already planning to return next year with a top driver line-up and car for the season’s highlights. That will certainly include a few NLS races,” said team owner Abbelen.

There is chatter, not confirmation, that Max Verstappen could use the double-header to tick off laps toward a Nordschleife permit. The Formula One World Champion already completed training laps earlier in the season and might be making his competitive debut with Lionspeed GP in the SP7 class.

Find the full NLS7 and NLS8 entry lists here.

The title fight tightens

Points live and die by class size in this championship, which is why the fiercest scrap is often away from outright GT3 wins. Last year’s champions Sven Markert and Ranko Mijatovic are now rivals and going head to head at the top on with 90 points apiece after six rounds. They are joined on the same total by their co-drivers Kevin Wambach and Nick Wüstenhagen as well as Tobias Wahl – the latter however being absent this weekend.

Markert fronts the #1 Adrenalin Motorsport Team Mainhattan Wheels in the BMW M240i Racing Cup, sharing the #1 with Kevin Wambach and Adrian Rziczny in the double-header. Mijatovic leads FK Performance Motorsport’s #187 BMW M4 GT4 programme in SP8T, alongside Nick Wüstenhagen and Reinhold Renger. Both crews have banked five class wins plus a second place to reach ninety. 8 points back sit Arne Hoffmeister and 2011 champion Tim Scheerbarth on 82 in Mühlner Motorsport’s Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, their five class wins tempered only by a single sixth place in the highly competitive and ever-exciting CUP2 class.

A quick look at some of the locals

The Eifel grows its own racers and teams, and the double-header is the perfect lens to see them in their natural habitat. First up, Richard Schäfer of Adenau: a sim-to-circuit graduate, an RCN VT1 lap record set in 2021 that still stands, RCN class champion in 2022 and fourth overall, first NLS podium in 2023 on debut, coaching drivers since 2024 and this year already a string of V4 wins in RCN plus a runner-up in V6 in rent2Drive’s Cayman GTS nicknamed ‘Fluffy’ in NLS. This weekend, he will be racing the Hyundai i30 N of STENLE Marketing by Mertens Motorsport. Short line, long résumé.

The family theme runs strong. Brothers Jürgen and Joachim Nett from Mayen but with roots in Adenau, are fixtures at the sharp end of VT2 in Dupré Engineering’s Audi S3, turning production-class traffic into an art form. Before the brothers became a racing duo, Jürgen won the 1987 VLN championship alongside his father Ludwig. From nearby Döttingen, David Ackermann continues to make rent2Drive the front door for juniors and keen amateurs while taking the wheel himself in ‘Fluffy’ in V6. Marcel Manheller also brings a Döttingen-built rhythm to his VT2 Toyota Supra. In Cup 3, Stefan and Markus Schmickler carry Bad Neuenahr’s colours in a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4, and Christian Kohlhaas of Andernach swaps his well-known Racing One Ferrari pedigree for Cayman duty to deepen an already fierce 18-car Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport CUP3 grid. You will find their battles as compelling as anything at the front.

2026 taking shape

At the grassroots end, the BMW story keeps growing. The series’ back-to-the-roots push has already boosted numbers, and a new BMW M2 Racing concept is slated to expand that ladder further next season.

Read the full news report here.

The outline for the 2026 calendar was announced earlier this week. To celebrate its 50th season of racing, NLS hosts a ten-round championship from March through October, including the ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers double-header in April.

Full 2026 NLS calendar.

Watch all the action live on GT REPORT

Friday is a full practice day, a chance for teams to shake down cars, bed in brakes and tyres, drill stops and driver changes, tune the set-up, and give friends, family, sponsors and supporters a thrilling taxi lap. Saturday sees the 65th running of the ADAC ACAS Cup, while Sunday the ADAC Reinoldus-Langstreckenrennen is held for the 64th time.

Both race days follow the familiar NLS rhythm: qualifying runs from 08:30 to 10:00, while grid formation runs from 11:00 to 11:40, and at 12:00 the four-hour races go green with the flag due at 16:00.

Both qualifying and race sessions can be watched live on GT.REPORT/live.

NLS DOUBLE-HEADER | LATEST NEWS | ENTRY LIST | LIVE STREAM | PREVIEW | NLS7 REPORT | FINAL NLS START KLAUS ABBELEN | NLS8 REPORT