Bright sunshine at the Nürburgring and thrilling racing once again thrilled numerous spectators at the ADAC Nürburgring Endurance Series. Dorian Boccolacci and Alessio Picariello from Falken Motorsports took the winner’s trophy at the premiere of the ADAC Ruhrpott Trophy. In the Porsche 911 GT3 R, the duo had a comfortable lead of 30.751 seconds over Christian Krognes and Mattia Drudi in the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo from Walkenhorst Motorsport in second place. The podium was completed by Augusto Farfus, ‘Jesse Krohn’, Raffaele Marciello and Kelvin Van der Linde in the BMW M4 GT3 Evo from ROWE Racing.
Frank Stippler secured pole position for the second time in a row – once again in the Audi R8 LMS of JUTA RACING and not in the brand new Ford Mustang GT3 of the Haupt Racing Team. Veteran Stippler also dominated the first stint of the four-hour race and retained the lead – but only until lap seven. After that, the two Falken Porsches took the wheel again. Tim Heinemann and Dennis Marshall dropped back in the sister car of the eventual winners due to a problem at the pit stop and on the final lap Boccolacci Krognes had to admit defeat in the Aston Martin. Luckily for the Falken team, the Walkenhorst duo received a time penalty for failing to meet the minimum standing time and were only classified in second place in the end. The ROWE quartet prevailed in a thrilling finish against the Porsche 911 GT3 R from Scherer Sport PHX. Patric Niederhauser and Patrick Pilet finished the 911 premiere of the Meuspath-based racing team in fourth place. Heinemann and Marshall finished fifth ahead of the Ferrari 296 GT3 from REALIZE KONDO RACING with Rinaldi.
‘Last time, I was delighted with second place in my first GT3 race in the Green Hell, but now I’m on top of the podium and I’m very happy,’ said Boccolacci. ‘Because of the penalty, I didn’t have to take the full risk on the last lap.’ There was praise from team-mate Picariello: ‘Dorian has shown an extremely steep learning curve and won outright in his second race after the podium in race one. That’s fantastic.’ Even though he had to settle for second place in the end, Krognes was not dissatisfied: ‘This is a very good start to the new season for me.’ For Drudi, NLS2 was the first race in an Aston Martin on the legendary Nordschleife. ‘Too bad about the win,’ he said. ‘But the car ran perfectly and we can be happy with the data we collected.’ Starting from ninth on the grid, the podium finish was a success for the ROWE team. ‘It was a chaotic race for us with many yellow flags – so we can be satisfied with the result,’ said Farfus.
Together with polesitter Stippler on board, ‘SELV’ and Alexey Veremenko drove to victory in the Pro-Am classification of SP9. The fastest Am car – the Audi R8 LMS GT3 of équipe vitesse – was driven by Michael Heimrich, Lorenzo Rocco and Arno Klasen.
Max Kruse Racing fastest car in the AT3 class
In the AT3 class for alternative fuels, Dominik and Marcel Fugel came out on top together with Moritz Oestreich in the Porsche 911 GT3 from Max Kruse Racing. The team won the four-hour race ahead of Björn and Georg Griesemann, who saw the chequered flag in second place in the premiere of the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS M from Team eFuel Griesemann. The car entered by Manthey completed its first outing in the Green Hell 26 laps without any problems. Third place went to Michelle Halder, ‘Tom’ and Luka Wlömer in the Porsche 911 GT3 R from Four Motors Bioconcept-Car.
After two races, three teams have a clean sheet. Heiko Eichenberg and Harley Haughton took the second Cup 3 victory in the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS of SRS Team Sorg Rennsport. Arne Hoffmeister and Tim Scheerbarth did the same in Mühlner Motorsport’s Porsche 911 GT3 Cup in Cup 2. Philipp Leisen, Philipp Stahlschmidt and Daniel Zils in the BMW 330i of Adrenalin Motorsport Team Mainhattan Wheels in the VT2-RWD also secured another class win. Zils also won the V6 class and was crowned ‘Driver of the Race’. The title will be decided jointly by representatives of the ILN Drivers’ Association, the NLS race organisers and the commentators of the live stream.
Done: Robert Wickens has completed his permit laps
At the ADAC Ruhrpott Trophy, Canadian Robert Wickens has fulfilled the requirements for obtaining the DMSB Permit Nordschleife. In the Hyundai Elantra of Bryan Herta Autosport, he drove 21 laps together with Michael Lewis and Youngchan Kim. In the end, the trio finished fourth in the TCR class. ‘It felt really good to be back in the Green Hell,’ he beamed. ‘I love the track and have nothing but good memories of the Nürburgring from my DTM days,’ said the paraplegic racer, who drives with a hand throttle system. ‘It works wonderfully, even though it’s very different to the sprint races I do in the USA. The Nordschleife is extremely tight and doesn’t forgive mistakes. You rarely have free laps and I have a lot to do with my hands, especially in the Code 60 or -120 phases. But I quickly got used to it.’
Promotion of young talent once again in the supporting programme
The NLS Youth Kart Slalom Championship was once again part of the supporting programme of the NLS. Jonas Bohrer (MSC Adenau) won the K1 class for the second time in a row and Oliver Scheibel (ASC Ahrweiler) triumphed in K2. The winner of K3 was Paul Sonnack (AMC Ingelheim), while first places in K4 and K5 went to Florian Rauhe (MSC Adenau) and Luis Müller-Herrfarth (MSC des PSV Wengerohr).
Two rounds of the ADAC Mittelrhein Slalom Youngster Cup also took place in the paddock at the same time as the NLS. The two MSC Adenau young talents Max Knauth (class 1) and Noah Servos (class 2) each took a double victory.
Trophies for the DNLS winners
Between practice and the race, the successful drivers of the 2024/2025 DNLS winter season were honoured, above all SCHERER eSPORT, who became double champions with the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup from the PEETN and with the Renault Clio in SP3. The DNLS Community Cup is on the programme for the summer. Then the virtual Green Hell will be back in action. Any sim racing enthusiast can take part and there are wildcards for the ‘big’ DNLS.
The third round of the ADAC Nürburgring Endurance Series will take place in just two weeks on 10 May. The 56th Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy will run over the usual distance of four hours. Tickets for the race are available from 25 euros at VLN.de/tickets. Youngsters up to and including the age of 14 have free entry.
