A perfect start for Falken Simracing: In a thrilling showdown, Sindre Setsaas and Lewis Woods secured victory in the BMW M4 GT3 in the first race of the Digital Nürburgring Langstrecken Serie in the 2025/2026 winter season. At the finish line, their lead over Phil Denes and Kay Kaschube in the MAHLE RACING TEAM’s Ford Mustang GT3 was just 0.33 seconds. Alexey Nesov and Constantin Tscharf in the Nürburgring eSports Aston Martin Vantage GT3 celebrated third place.
In the early stages, the two Ford teams HRT Esports by Coanda and SZESE E-Sport, led by European truck racing champion Norbi Kiss, dominated the action at the front of the field. Both teams continued to perform strongly as the race progressed. In the end, however, both were unlucky. SZESE fell back to fifth place after receiving a penalty for falling below the minimum pit stop time. HRT took the lead, but final driver Luis Bellicke retired 10 minutes before the end with a technical problem – apparently a disconnect from the iRacing server.
This cleared the way for Falken Simracing, who recorded their first victory in the DNLS. “I still can’t believe it,” said Woods. “So many things had to come together today to make this victory possible. We had to manage our tires throughout the race, but we had the speed. Things went well for me in the final meters. I took the Galgenkopf exit perfectly and from then on I believed I could still catch the Ford.” His teammate Setsaas was also overwhelmed: “That was a spectacular showdown,” grinned the 2022 NLS champion. “I wasn’t entirely happy in qualifying, as I had slight understeer at the end of my lap. The start was quite good, even though I had a few collisions. It was tough but fair racing. In the end, our strategy paid off.”
The same faces, a new team in first place: reigning PEETN champions Raphael Rennhofer and Luca Alpert were also ahead of the pack at the start of the 2025/2026 winter season. After switching to EMM Esports, they remain the benchmark in the Porsche Esports Endurance Trophy Nürburgring. In the race, the duo prevailed against Julien Soenen and Sean Terre from Coanda Esports as well as Luis Glania and Felix Vötter from Pole Promotion Esports.
“It couldn’t have gone better,” said Rennhofer. “Pole position, victory, only the fastest lap of the race eluded us, unfortunately. We have a lot of experience in this combination and, in our third year together, we know exactly what we have to do.” Alpert was also satisfied: “I’ve raced in real motorsport in the Dacia Logan Cup and the BMW 318ti Cup. Unfortunately, it’s very expensive, so I’m now focusing on sim racing. In the DNLS, I have the opportunity to compete with the best.”
The BMW M4 GT4s dominated the first race in the GT4 class SP 10. Adam J. Isaksson and John Ehlen from SimRC prevailed against Eetu Eskelinen and Siro Zambra from Williams Sim Racing. Third place went to Nico Schiffer and Anton Zschemisch from LionGP-fenster.com. “The start was a bit stressful, but we had good pace and managed to maintain it throughout the stints,” said Sweden’s Isaksson. Ehlen added: “Our success today was primarily down to a good team performance. Adam laid the foundation in qualifying, and I just had to finish the job at the end.”
The first winners of the new BMW M2 Racing Cup class are Elias Raikaa and Nils Koch. In the compact sports car from BS+COMPETITION, the duo prevailed against Ben Elias Reimer and Leon Klose from SCHERER eSPORT and Merlin Marc Wolf and Conner Karnik from Wolf Motorsport Simracing.
“This class is a new challenge for me,” admitted Koch, who won the first DNLS season championship in 2020 alongside Bruno Spengler. “I drove in GT4 last year. But in the real world, I’ve already gained experience with a BMW M240i in the RCN and NLS. That’s why I was very excited about the new M2 class. It’s extremely close here. Elias had a strong qualifying session and completed a good stint. In the end, we made it more exciting than necessary because we calculated very carefully. In the end, the race couldn’t have lasted a lap longer, otherwise we would have run out of fuel.” When asked about his wealth of experience with the new M2, the veteran said: “We are still a long way from reaching the limit with the M2 in terms of setup. Of course, we will try to get more out of it here and there, but there is no reason to panic and try to turn the car upside down. It worked well.”
Koch & Co. will have the opportunity to confirm the status quo in two weeks’ time. The second race of the DNLS on December 20 concludes the first half of the winter season shortly before Christmas.
