In a highly dramatic finale to the 2025/2026 Digital Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (DNLS), the championship was finally decided on 28 February. Whilst Team BS+COMPETITION #284 clinched the overall title with a perfect season record, Falken Simracing secured the day’s victory in the BILSTEIN 3-hour race.
In the overall standings across all classes, the focus was on the duel between the BMW M2 Racing from BS+COMPETITION and the Porsche 911 Cup from EMM Esports. Both teams went into the final with identical points totals. With their fourth victory in the fourth race, Nils Koch and Ruben Bonga confidently clinched the title of the 2025/2026 DNLS season for BS+COMPETITION. Their rivals from EMM Esports had to settle for second place in their class in the final, which sealed the title win for the BMW team.
Nils Koch summed up after the victory: “I’m absolutely delighted with the result, winning the BMW M2 Cup and, of course, the overall championship. In the last two stints, it was a bit of a gamble – we didn’t want to push too hard to avoid mistakes, but that’s exactly when it becomes dangerous to lose concentration.”
SP9: Falken Simracing seizes its chance
In the premier SP9 class, Falken Simracing benefited from a turbulent opening phase and mistakes by the competition. Whilst the championship contenders from BS+COMPETITION (#1) completed only one of two qualifying laps and had to start from 16th place, Mitchell de Jong in the Ford Mustang (#8 HRT Esports) secured pole position with a time of 7:47.773 minutes. DTM returnee Kelvin Van der Linde missed out on a better starting position in eleventh place with the Scherer eSport Ford Mustang GT3 after his second qualifying lap was disallowed. In the race, the South African staged an impressive comeback to third place, but was forced to retire early due to a connection failure.
Despite early dominance from the HRT Esports Ford Mustang, which at times built up a lead of ten seconds, the BMW M4 GT3 EVO once again proved to be the superior car over the distance. Falken Simracing secured their second win of the season with a lead of 2.352 seconds and ultimately the SP9 championship ahead of Felix Quirmbach and Elias Seppanen from BS+COMPETITION. De Jong and his teammate Luis Beilicke had to settle for third place in the HRT Mustang.
Sindre Setsaas (#44) was delighted after the victory and winning the SP9 title: “We didn’t expect to win today. The BMW has been extremely strong throughout the season, and it feels great to be right at the top of the class standings in the end.”
PEETN: EMM Esports celebrates a one-two finish
The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup class once again delivered some of the closest racing. A constant battle between EMM Esports, Frozenspeed and Coanda dominated the proceedings. In the end, the two EMM Porsches battled it out amongst themselves for the win. The #914 (Luca Alpert / Jerome Fischer) secured the race win by the narrowest of margins ahead of the new class champions in the #905 (Raphael Rennhofer / Julian Reimer), who had already been confirmed as champions before the final.
Luca Alpert emphasised the team’s performance: “We battled it out throughout the entire race. Raphael Rennhofer is the deserved champion, but we’re absolutely delighted to have secured the win for the #914 today.”
SP10: Drama right up to the penultimate lap
In the SP10 class, the outcome was only decided shortly before crossing the finish line. In a thrilling duel, the #170 car from Falken Simracing defeated the competition from SimRC (#176) and celebrated its first victory of the season. Tim Jarschel, who drove the Falken BMW alongside Casper Oelen, managed to close the gap on SimRC and take the lead on the penultimate lap. Despite the defeat in the race, SimRC comfortably secured the SP10 championship title.
The convergence of real and sim racing: A positive conclusion
Christian Vormann, VLN sporting director and also a member of the DNLS race control team, drew a positive conclusion: “The season has offered exciting and, above all, very fair competition. It is impressive to see how real racing and sim racing complement each other. A major step forward is the recognition of the DNLS by the DMSB: participants can have their racing experience here credited towards the DMSB Permit Nordschleife. This is a milestone for the fusion of both worlds.”
The official presentation of the champions will take place on 11 April as part of the third round of the ADAC RAVENOL Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie. The real-life season in the Green Hell kicks off as early as 14 March – and, by his own admission, Falken driver Jarschel won’t be missing that either.
