A 70-car boycott put the Nürburgring's rival series off until 2028

Thirty cars cannot fill the Nordschleife, and the teams told ADAC Nordrhein so

ADAC Nordrhein confirmed on 11 September that its ADAC 24h Nürburgring Series will not start in 2027. The club that runs the Nürburgring 24 Hours announced the six-race championship on 27 July as a rival to the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie, whose grids run past 130 cars. The ILN team association threatened to keep more than 70 of them away, and the postponement to 2028 followed four failed conciliation rounds.

ADAC Nordrhein's six-race series was built around the 24 Hours itself

The plan announced on 27 July was five events and six races, all on the full 25.378 km combination of Grand Prix circuit and Nordschleife, and all under the technical regulations of the 24 Hours. A Prologue on 2 and 3 April, the 24h Qualifiers from 30 April to 2 May, the 24 Hours from 27 to 30 May, an Eifelrennen at the end of July and a 1000 km race in September. Its stated aim is to professionalise Nordschleife racing and bring in major partners, and it regards VLN's volunteer-run structure as out of date.

ILN threatened to withhold 70 cars from a grid ADAC Nordrhein planned around 30

ILN, the association of Nordschleife teams, said openly that it would boycott the new series with more than 70 cars if it launched in 2027. For scale, 132 cars entered the first NLS round of 2026 in March, 24 of them GT3s, so 70 is more than half of a normal grid. Chairman Martin Rosorius did not soften after winning: ADAC Nordrhein's realisation that a successful endurance series cannot be run on the Nordschleife with just 30 cars came late, he said, but in time to prevent major damage to teams, drivers and sponsors. The 24 Hours in May had 161 cars registered, the largest entry in a decade, and drew 280,000 spectators the year before.

Four DMSB rounds ended at a 2pm deadline, and the NLS 2027 calendar lost its Qualifiers

The German federation DMSB opened conciliation talks on 1 September. Four rounds followed, one internal to the ADAC, the last on Friday morning during set-up runs for this weekend's NLS double-header. VLN had set a 2pm deadline before publishing its 2027 calendar, and ADAC Nordrhein did not answer in time. The result is an NLS season of eight races on seven weekends: 20 March, 17 April, 3 July, a six-hour race on 7 August, a double-header on 11 and 12 September, 25 September and 9 October. The 24h Qualifiers, which counted as two NLS rounds in 2026, are gone from it, which leaves the series without a race between mid-April and July.

A January 2024 court ruling made the Nürburgring an essential facility

The reason two ADAC clubs are fighting over one track is a lawsuit that neither of them started. VLN sued circuit owner NR Holding in 2023; on appeal, a January 2024 ruling classed the Nürburgring as an essential facility, the legal status of a power grid, and ordered non-discriminatory access for every organiser. The short-lived Nürburgring Endurance Series that split the 2024 calendar on the back of it collapsed under team boycotts; the main proceedings are still open. Noise rules allow one 24-hour race a year, so if a second promoter ever bids for that slot, the circuit could be forced to rotate it, and ADAC Nordrhein's own series was a pre-emptive claim on the calendar. The club had also left the NLS rescue coalition it formed with the ADAC Mittelrhein and Westfalen regions in 2024, so the fight now runs through the ADAC itself.

VLN turns 50 and the Nürburgring turns 100 in 2027, with nothing signed

Race director Walter Hornung said the preparation time was too short for many teams, partners and sponsors, and that talks for 2028 will continue with the 24h Qualifiers as the model. VLN managing director Mike Jäger answered with dates: the series founded in 1977 reaches half a century in 2027, the same year the circuit marks a centenary that BMW and Porsche are already selling with anniversary editions. Rosorius wants that year defined by one united endurance platform rather than two rival series. None of the three has signed anything.

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Postponing the series has fixed the 2027 calendar and left the cause exactly where it was. ADAC Nordrhein still has no long-term contract for the 24 Hours, VLN still has an open case against the circuit owner, and a ruling that treats the Nordschleife like a power grid still means any promoter with a bank guarantee can bid for a May slot. The boycott threat worked because 70 cars is more than half of an NLS grid and more than twice what the club could have started with; it did not make the lawsuit go away.

The 24h Qualifiers from 30 April to 2 May 2027 are where this gets measured. ADAC Nordrhein will run them outside the NLS for the first time. If they draw the 130-car field an NLS round draws, the 2028 series already has its grid and ILN's threat is spent. If they draw the 30 that Rosorius mocked, there will be no ADAC 24h Nürburgring Series in 2028 either, and VLN's fiftieth season will end with the club that runs the biggest race on the Nordschleife holding one weekend a year.

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