134 cars have been entered for the seventh round of the 2026 Nürburgring Langstecken-Series, the 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen, which will take place this weekend.
The field is headlined by 21 cars in the top SP 9 category, including five in SP 9 Pro.
Winward Racing is set to make its first appearance at the Ring since winning the 24H Nürburgring back in May, with Luca Stolz and Ralf Aron sharing its Mercedes-AMG Team Ravenol-entered #80 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO.
NLS Speed Trophy leader Schubert Motorsport, which won NLS3 in April, has entered the #77 BMW M4 GT3 Evo for Jens Klingmann, Ugo de Wilde and Tim Tramnitz, whilst a further Pro BMW comes from FK Performance Motorsport.
The German squad, which is the defending NLS champion, is making its maiden GT3 appearance on the Nordschleife, with BMW M factory driver Dan Harper sharing the #1 M4 GT3 Evo with Leyton Fourie, Pavel Lefterov and Maxime Oosten.
The Pro line-up is completed by the #35 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo of Christian Krognes and Dennis Fetzer, and the #64 HRT Ford Racing Mustang GT3 Evo of Vincent Kolb and Frank Stippler.
Notably, Schnabl Engineering, the winner of both last year’s 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen and the most recent NLS round, is absent.
The rest of the SP 9 field is split evenly between Pro-Am and Am, both of which have attracted eight cars.
Headlines here include multiple teams making their SP 9 debut, such as Team Joos Sportwagentechnik, which will field the #2 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) for Michael Joos, Fidel Leib and Marco Lamsouguer in Am.
“Since our test last year, we have been working on our own GT3 programme on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, and so we are all the more delighted to be able to announce that we will be competing in the remaining NLS races with our 911 GT3 R,” Joos said.
“Our aim for the remaining races is to gain as much experience as possible to lay the foundations for a long-term commitment, whilst also not neglecting the results and aiming for the best possible classification. We would have headed for the Nordschleife sooner, but our focus this year has so far been on our customer programmes in the Peter Auto series. When Fidel then got in touch with us, however, it was an instant match, and we are very happy that we can realise the programme together.”
Up2Race, which won Creventic’s 12H Nürburgring on the GP layout earlier this month, is another newcomer, with the Pro-Am #88 Porsche for Oleksii Kikireshko and Tim Heinemann.
Elsewhere, Era Motorsport will field a Mercedes-AMG for the first time, with Kyle Tilley, Adam Christodoulou and Jake Hill sharing the #20 AMG GT3 EVO in Pro-Am.
And Dylan Pereira, notably, is set to pull double-duty this weekend, with the Luxembourgish driver combining his drive in the #48 48LOSCH Motorsport by Black Falcon Porsche with his GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup campaign for Tresor Attempto Racing. The Saturday Sprint Cup race at Magny-Cours, France, is not starting until 21:05 CEST, making contesting both races possible.
The GT3 contingent is bolstered to 24 cars by a trio of Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs from Max Kruse Racing, which are entered into AT1.
As always, the lower classes also feature some names of intrigue.
In SP10 for GT4 cars, Porsche legends Timo Bernhard and Jörg Bergmeister will share the #718 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS, which has been entered as a Guest runner by Bernhard’s Team75 Bernhard outfit.
And amongst those on the quest to earn a DMSB Permit A, Anthony McIntosh and Ben Tuck are entered into the #960 Schmickler Performance powered by Ravenol Porsche 718 Cayman CS in CUP3.
The 2026 KW 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen, the longest round of the NLS, will begin at 12:00 CEST on Saturday 1st August 2026, with a 90-minute qualifying session taking place earlier that day at 8:30 CEST.
Image courtesy of Frozenspeed
