The VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring is facing a very promising season. One of the main reasons is the perfect calendar which has been prepared by the VLN together with its partner Nürburgring GmbH. The race series at the ‘Green hell’ will start on 2nd April, followed by four further race weekends, including a race over six hours on 14th May, before the 24 Hour Race will take place at the Nürburgring.
This offers a lot of opportunities for the teams wishing to be well prepared for the highlight of the season at the Nürburgring. The classical long distance race will furthermore for the first time host the Porsche Carrera World Cup as supporting race in which up to 200 cars from the various international Carrera Cups will be on the starting grid. In particular these race drivers will be happy to use the opportunity to get previously familiar with the very demanding Nordschleife. So the fans may look forward to a race with a high competitive Porsche Cup class.
After the 24 Hour Race, two rounds in summer time are shown on the calendar, the first one on 30th July and the second one on 27th August, the latter also running over the distance of six hours. So the fans of the endurance racing series will be able to experience more racing action than ever. The decision about the championship will then be taken in the last third of the season in the months of September and October.
The sophisticated Regulations of this most popular endurance racing series in Europe have only been modified in small details. One of the major amendments is the introduction of two classes for vehicles with turbochargers in the group of VLN series production cars. This decision reflects the trend in the automotive industry to use more turbo engines. The number of cars which will be eligible to participate in the endurance racing series will thus considerably be increased.
Furthermore, the cars of the Renault Clio Cup will this year compete in a separate class. Even though the competitive compact cars must continue to comply with the Regulations for 24h Specials up to 2000 cc, the great number of Cup vehicles which competed last season made this modification of the classification criteria necessary.
