The “Green Hell” is calling: The highlight of the endurance season for the BMW teams is scheduled for this weekend. The BMW Sports Trophy teams will be represented by strong drivers at the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife (DE), which will be run for the 43rd time this year. Six BMW Z4 GT3s will compete in the SP9 class and want to be fighting for the top places in the overall standings. Then there are the starters in the BMW M235i Racing Cup class, a BMW M235i Racing entered by BMW Motorsport as a media car and naturally a large number of privateers in their BMW cars.
As a result of the tragic accident at the first VLN race for safety reasons there will be speed limits on some of the dangerous sections of track at this year’s 24-hour race. Teams and drivers were given enough time to get used to these new conditions during the preparation race.
BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert will compete on the Nordschleife for the fourth time with works support from BMW Motorsport, and will field two BMW Z4 GT3s. Car number 19 will be driven by Dirk Werner (DE), Dirk Müller (DE), Alexander Sims (GB) and DTM Champion Marco Wittmann (DE). The cockpit of car number 20 will once again be shared by Dominik Baumann (AT), Claudia Hürtgen (DE), Jens Klingmann (DE) and BMW DTM driver Martin Tomczyk (DE). The quartet celebrated victory at the six-hour qualifying race in mid April.
BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS will also contest the race with works support and a top-class driver line-up. Lucas Luhr (DE), Markus Palttala (FI), BMW DTM driver Maxime Martin (BE) and Richard Westbrook (GB) will take it in turns at the wheel of the number 25 BMW Z4 GT3. Car number 26 will be driven by Jörg Müller (DE), Nick Catsburg (NL), Dirk Adorf (DE) and BMW DTM driver Augusto Farfus (BR). In addition to these four cars, the Walkenhorst Motorsport team will field two BMW Z4 GT3s in the SP9 class.
A total of 15 teams have registered for the BMW M235i Racing Cup. A 16th BMW M235i Racing will be fielded by BMW Motorsport in collaboration with Walkenhorst Motorsport. The two motorsport journalists Bernd Ostmann (DE) and Christian Gebhardt (DE) will share the car with Harald Grohs (DE) and BMW Motorsport Junior Victor Bouveng (SE).