The signs are good for a fantastic day of racing, as the third race of the ADAC Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie next Saturday (10 May) will be contested by a select field of participants. The provisional entry list for the 56th Adenauer Rundstrecken-Trophy comprises 141 cars – 510 drivers from 36 nations with vehicles from 18 different car manufacturers. Among them are a number of champions who celebrated great success in a wide variety of international racing series and prestigious events in 2024. Tickets for the race are available from 25 euros at VLN.de/tickets. Young people up to the age of 14 are admitted free of charge. Those who cannot be there live can follow the entire race day in the livestream at VLN.de.
Joel Sturm will start the race as a genuine world champion. Together with Manthey PureRxcing, the 23-year-old German won the LMGT3 classification in the WEC. In NLS3, he shares the cockpit of the Porsche 911 GT3 R from Dinamic GT with Bastian Buus and Loek Hartog. Sturm has to expect a lot of headwind, because with Lucas Auer and Maro Engel, who will be racing for Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed, he will be up against the reigning champions of the GT World Challenge Europe – probably the strongest GT3 championship in the world. Auer alternates at the wheel of a Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Adam Christodoulou and Mikaël Grenier, while Engel forms a strong trio together with Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz. Reigning DTM champion Mirko Bortolotti will be on board for Red Bull Team ABT. He will start the race in the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 together with Luca Engstler and Christian Engelhart. Scherer Sport PHX has united two champions in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO 2 with starting number #15: Christopher Haase won the International GT Open title in 2024, Luca Ludwig the GT Cup Europe.
In addition to the stars already mentioned, other champions will be taking part in the third race of the Nordschleife racing series season. Lorenz Stegmann, who won the Porsche Sprint Challenge GT3 in 2024, will compete in Cup 3 together with Joshua Bednarski and Kai Riemer in the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS from W&S Motorsport. Nick Deißler, who dominated the RCN performance test last year, will also compete in the small PETN class. His team-mates in the Adrenalin Motorsport Team Mainhattan Wheels are Stefan Kruse and Aaron Wenisch.
With Frank Stippler, Ricardo Feller and Dennis Marschall, last year’s winners of the ADAC RAVENOL 24h-Nürburgring will also be on the grid – albeit in different cars. Stippler is switching to the cockpit of the beefy Ford Mustang GT3 from HRT FORD Performance this year. Feller remains loyal to Scherer Sport PHX and will contest the race in the Porsche 911 GT3 R of the team from the Nürburgring business park. Marschall, on the other hand, drives for Falken Motorsports, also in a Porsche. He will share the 911 with Morris Schuring, who won the LMGT3 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year. Nicki Thiim, the winner of the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, completes the high-calibre field. Together with David Pittard, he will drive an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo for Walkenhorst Motorsport.
Of course, the successful drivers of the 2024 NLS season will also be competing together. However, the trio of champions are going their separate ways. Sven Markert will drive the BMW M240i Racing Cup of Adrenalin Motorsport Team Mainhattan Wheels with starting number #1, Toby Goodman has switched to AVIA W&S Motorsport in a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS and Ranko Mijatovic will contest the 2025 season in the BMW M4 GT4 of FK Performance Motorsport. The winner of the Ladies Trophy, Desiree Müller, has moved up to Cup 3.
Only three teams still have a clean slate
After two of ten races in the 2025 season, the first favourites for the championship title have emerged. Heiko Eichenberg and Harley Haughton (Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS, SRS Team Sorg Rennsport), Tim Scheerbarth and Arne Hoffmeister (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, Mühlner Motorsport) and Philipp Leisen, Philipp Stahlschmidt and Daniel Zils (BMW 330i, Adrenalin Motorsport Team Mainhattan Wheels) lead the standings with two wins each in their class. Eichenberg is also the leader in the Gentleman Trophy, while Haughton takes first place in the Junior Trophy. The Adrenalin trio holds the top spot in the Production Car Trophy. Falken Motorsports is the clear leader in the NLS Speed Trophy with the #3 Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Home race for seven teams
Seven cars will compete in NLS3 under the banner of the organising MSC Adenau. In the SP10, W&S Motorsport will field a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 for Stephan Brodmerkel, Jürgen Vöhringer and Hendrik Still. Laurents Hörr, Ulrich Daniel Nölken and David Ackermann from rent2Drive-racing will also be competing in the V6 with a Cayman. Georg Albinger and Jérôme Larbi will also be competing in the V5 with a Cayman. Team STENLE Marketing by Mertens Motorsport will enter two Hyundai cars in the VT2-F+4WD. Daniel Mertens, Alex Schneider and Akshay Gupte will alternate as drivers in the #493, Ralf Wiesner and double starter Schneider in the #496. Two local heroes will also be taking part in the BMW 325i Challenge by Goodyear. Sven Oepen and Manuel Dormagen in the #112 and Simon Sagmeister, Jürgen Hubert and Dirk Vleugels in the #700.
Get your tickets now!
Tickets for the 56th Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy are available for 25 euros (children up to and including 14 years free of charge) at vln.de/tickets and at the box offices. These tickets will take you to the open grandstands at the Grand Prix circuit, the exclusive spectator areas Brünnchen and Pflanzgarten as well as the paddock, pit lane and starting grid. The third round of the NLS Kart Slalom Championship will once again take place on the helipad in the paddock.
The best positions for the starting grid will be contested in qualifying between 08:30 and 10 am. During the break between qualifying and the race, fans will have plenty of time to experience the cars up close and get a whiff of the racing air: with a ticket, they can first enter the pit lane at 10:20 a.m. for the pit walk before lining up on the grid at 11:10 a.m.. The Nürburgring mascot ‘Legend’ and Stitch from ‘Lilo & Stitch’ will also be there on Saturday. The race start for the four-hour endurance race is at 12 noon. The livestream at VLN.de starts at 08:15. In addition, ‘Radio Nürburgring’ will be available at rpr1.de and in the RPR1.APP.
