One of the coolest racing series in the world takes place at the legendary Nürburgring circuit in Germany. It’s aptly named the Nürburgring Langstrecken Series (NLS) and they not only race on the modern Grand Prix circuit, but also on the Nordschleife, the long and twisty north loop of the ‘Ring that runs through woods and makes up most of the fifteen-mile lap. It’s the only circuit the series races on, but it’s the best road course circuit in the world.
The NLS had seven rounds in its season, including a 12-hour race. Many of the top teams that compete in the annual Nürburgring 24-Hour also compete in the VLN races prior to the 24 to prepare for the big one. Many teams run the entire series, and BMW team Adrenalin Motorsport took home the top honors as the overall series champion in 2022 with drivers Daniel Zils, Oskar Sandberg, and Sindre Setsaas, winning all seven races in the class for production cars with displacements up to 2,000cc. It was the teams fifth title since 2018. “We are really happy to defend the NLS championship title again–a sensational thing!” said team manager Matthias Unger.
BMW also had some strong performances in the NLS when contesting the overall victories in the SP9 Pro class, which consists of GT3 machinery with pro drivers. BMW M4 GT3s had six podiums during the season in that class, with a highlight being the second race of the year in April where works drivers Connor De Phillippi and Augusto Farfus took victory in the ROWE Racing M4 GT3 ahead of Junior team drivers Max Hesse, Dan Harper, and Neil Verhagen, followed in third by the Walkenhorst Motorsport car of Christian Krognes, Andy Soucek and Sami-Matti Trogen.
The Walkenhorst team had the most overall success of any BMW team in the Pro class for the entire season, with four podiums, and they likely would have won the final race overall if not for some issues with the refueling on the last pit stop of the race with an hour to go. The finished third in the finale, with Christian Krognes setting a new lap record with a 7:49.578 lap.
—David Haueter
[Photos by NLS and BMW]
