Nürburgring 24 Entry Increases to 161 Cars

Photo: NLS

This year’s Nürburgring 24 will feature the largest grid for over a decade as an expanded 161-car entry list, which includes 41 GT3 machines in the top SP9 class, has been revealed.

Event organizers had capped grids at 150 cars in recent seasons but unprecedented interest in this year’s edition, especially in the wake of four-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen’s participation, has resulted in extra capacity being made available.

Teams have agreed to reduce their space requirements amid a detailed reassessment of the paddock layout to enable the extra 11 cars to take part in the May 16-17 contest.

“We are delighted with the extraordinary response to the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring 2026,” said race director Walter Hornung.

“The fact that we can bring this large and high-calibre field to the start is only possible because so many teams have cooperated. I would like to express my sincere thanks for that.

“This demonstrates the special spirit of the endurance racing community at the Nordschleife: from world-class stars to amateur drivers, everyone is pulling together because everyone wants to be part of this special race.”

Verstappen is among the headline names as he makes his N24 debut at the wheel of a Winward-run Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo alongside Lucas Auer, Dani Juncadella and Jules Gounon, but there is plenty of quality throughout the entry list.

The Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II with which Verstappen has repeatedly battled during his Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie outings so far this year has retained the lineup of Christopher Haase, Alexander Sims and Ben Green that triumphed in the sole N24 Qualifier.

Meanwhile, Christopher Lulham — a regular at Verstappen’s squad — is part of another Mercedes-AMG crew, the PROSport Racing entry he will share with Adam Christodoulou, Mikael Grenier and Marek Boeckmann.

Also on the starting grid will be 2003 winner Timo Scheider, who will race a Doerr Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 for the first time in this year’s contest.

He will share the sole GT3 McLaren in the field with factory racer Marvin Kirchhoefer and the team’s DTM drivers Timo Glock and Ben Doerr.

Porsche squad Lionspeed GP had already revealed a strong lineup of Laurens Vanthoor, Laurin Heinrich and Ricardo Feller for its Pro Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, but has also signed an intriguing crew for its Pro-Am machine.

The 2024 British Touring Car champion Jake Hill will team up with Kyle Tilley, the pair regularly sharing cars in historic competition, and local driver Patrick Kolb.

In total, nine GT3 manufacturers are represented in this year’s N24 with last year’s winner BMW having an expanded three-strong M4 GT3 EVO presence, while also fielding the attention-grabbing BMW M3 Touring 24H machine.

Other brands present include a single Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo from KONDO Racing with Rinaldi, a trio of HRT Ford Mustang GT3s (with both new and old evolutions), Aston Martin and Lamborghini, but the Italian manufacturer’s new Temerario GT3 will not feature. Instead a quartet of Huracan GT3 EVO2s are entered.

Source: Sports Car 365