Germany Trip

About the event

The ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring (Nürburgring 24 Hours) is a 24-hour touring-car and GT endurance race — not a competitive rally — run on a combined circuit of the Nürburgring's Nordschleife and Grand Prix track, an approximately 25.3 km lap through the forested Eifel hills known as the "Green Hell" at Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. First held in 1970, it is one of the world's largest and most famous endurance races. The 54th running was held on 14–17 May 2026, drawing a record 352,000 spectators across the weekend, and staged Round 2 of the 2026 Intercontinental GT Challenge. Winward Racing's Mercedes-AMG took a one-two, with the #80 car (Fabian Schiller, Maro Engel, Maxime Martin, Luca Stolz) declared outright winner after the second-placed Abt-Lamborghini was disqualified post-race for a Balance of Performance infringement — promoting Walkenhorst Motorsport's Aston Martin to 2nd. F1 driver Max Verstappen made his 24h Nürburgring debut, running as high as the lead before a driveshaft failure ended his and Mercedes' #3 car's challenge.

Championship

Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) — Round 2, 2026

Organiser

ADAC Nordrhein (in partnership with the SRO Motorsports Group for 2026)

Base

Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Surface

International

The route & format

• Format: Single continuous 24-hour endurance race; 159 cars started, 111 finished (~70% completion rate).
• Terrain: Tarmac permanent racing circuit — the Nordschleife ("North Loop") combined with the GP-Strecke, an approx. 25.3 km lap through the forested Eifel hills (the "Green Hell"). Not gravel, not a rally.

The 2026 result

• 2026 result: Mercedes-AMG (Winward Racing, #80: Schiller/Engel/Martin/Stolz) won outright — the marque's 3rd overall win in event history — after the Abt-Lamborghini that finished 2nd was disqualified for exceeding its Balance of Performance power limit. Walkenhorst Motorsport's Aston Martin was promoted to 2nd, Rowe Racing's BMW M4 GT3 to 3rd.

Where spectators watched

Ticketed, and the crowd is enormous — the organisers counted 280,000 fans across the grandstands and Eifel forests in 2025 and a record 352,000 in 2026. Every 2026 ticket covered all open Grand Prix grandstands, the Nordschleife spectator areas and the paddock on one wristband. Advance prices ran from €35 for a Sunday day ticket to €74 for the Thursday-Sunday event ticket, with a €5 surcharge once box-office sales opened on 11 May. Free 24h fan buses linked the main viewing points on two routes Thursday to Sunday. Animals are banned from the site apart from assistance dogs, and grandstands can't be re-entered once closed for the start procedure.

Spectator points

• Brünnchen

  The self-declared party mile of the Nordschleife — forest camping between Hohe Acht and Brünnchen with a direct view of the track, and one of only two dedicated Nordschleife car parks. It was the terminus of free fan bus route 1 in 2026. Part of this sector sits in a bird protection zone, so stay inside the marked areas.

• Pflanzgarten

  The jumping section, where the cars go properly airborne. Reached on fan bus route 1, with camping alongside and one of the six on-site merchandise outlets.

• Adenauer Forst

  A hard braking and downshift zone straight after the Fuchsröhre, and a party hub since the late 1980s. It has its own Nordschleife car park, a camping area and a merchandise outlet, and sits inside a protected landscape, so marked-area rules apply.

• Karussell / Hohe Acht

  The Nordschleife's signature banked concrete corner and the highest point of the lap, listed as a camping area in the 2026 Fan Guide. Partly inside a bird protection zone — no driving on forest tracks and no wandering off the marked ground.

• Schwalbenschwanz and Hatzenbach

  Schwalbenschwanz is the last twisty section before the cars rejoin the Grand Prix circuit; Hatzenbach is the opening sequence right after they leave it. Both are camping areas, and both are fan bus stops — Hatzenbach is served by both routes.

• Müllenbachschleife — the Friday drift show

  The southern loop of the GP circuit, and the venue for the Falken Drift Show on the Friday evening, 19:30-21:00, with a special fan bus stop laid on just for it. Included with event, weekend and Friday day tickets.

• Grand Prix grandstands and ring°boulevard

  All open GP grandstands plus the paddock come with every ticket. The ring°boulevard fan mile and the Ferris wheel in the paddock run long hours — roughly 09:00-22:00 Thursday and Friday, to 23:00 on Saturday.

• Döttinger Höhe — not an official area

  Worth knowing, because it's often suggested: the long full-throttle straight is the fastest part of the lap but is not one of the official 24h camping or spectator areas, and doesn't appear in the Fan Guide's list at all.

How 2026 ran

1. Wednesday 13 May 2026 — Adenauer Racing Day

   The community's unofficial opening night, in Adenau town centre: parade from 16:00 and festivities to 19:00 with interviews, autographs and give-aways.

2. Thursday 14 May 2026

   Support racing from 08:15, ring°boulevard open 09:00-22:00, then 24h Qualifying 1 at 13:15-15:15 and the night session, Qualifying 2, running 20:00-23:30.

3. Friday 15 May 2026

   Top Qualifying across the morning and early afternoon, Touring Car Legends and historic endurance racing through the day, then from 19:30 the pit and track walk with a pit-lane autograph session, and the Falken Drift Show at the Müllenbachschleife.

4. Saturday 16 May 2026 — race day

   24h warm-up 10:00-11:15, Touring Car Legends race 11:50, vehicle parades on the Nordschleife from 12:30, starting grid from 12:45 with the grid open 13:10-14:10, formation lap 14:40 and the race start at 15:00.

5. Sunday 17 May 2026 — the finish

   ring°boulevard open 09:30-17:00, tech talks and autograph sessions from 11:00, then the chequered flag and podium at 15:00. Race tickets stayed valid until 18:00.

Access, timings and prices checked 30 August 2026. Organisers move spectator points and road closures at short notice — confirm on the official event page before you travel.

Getting there & staying

• Getting there: The official directions page lists Cologne/Bonn at 82 km, Frankfurt-Hahn 94 km, Luxembourg 123 km, Düsseldorf 139 km and Frankfurt 159 km. By road it's the A1 to the end of the motorway from Cologne, the A61 to the Wehr exit from Koblenz or Bonn, or the A48 to the Ulmen exit from Trier and Luxembourg. Day-visitor parking is spread across numbered car parks on the GP circuit plus Adenauer Forst and Brünnchen, and parking on the verges of federal, state and district roads is banned. Free 24h fan buses ran two routes across the weekend, linking the Welcome Center, Hatzenbach, Schwalbenschwanz, Pflanzgarten, Brünnchen, Breidscheid and Adenau. The official directions page lists no rail option.
• Where to stay: Camping in the Eifel forest is the default, and it's a three-part purchase: an event ticket, a camping ticket and a vehicle permit for every person. 2026 camping ran €30 for one day up to €95 for six per person, with vehicle permits €20-€90 depending on days and weight, plus refundable environmental and fridge deposits. Regular sites are first-come, first-served with pitches allocated in arrival order; only the Family & Friends area could be booked ahead, at €100 for a 50 m² pitch for up to eight people, and it sold out for 2026. At the circuit itself there are the Dorint and Nürburgring hotels plus a caravan park, and Adenau is the nearest town, where the supermarket extends its hours for race weekend.
• While you’re there: Nürburg castle sits directly above the track — the circuit was built around it between 1925 and 1927 — and at the GP circuit the ring°werk interactive motorsport attraction, the kart track, bowling and the Nordschleife trackwalk and backstage tours all run outside race weekends. Anyone who wants to drive the Green Hell themselves can book a Touristenfahrten public lapping session. Beyond the Ring, the region promotes the AhrSteig and Eifelleiter walking trails and the Ahr valley cycle routes through the Eifel volcano country.

Tickets & camping

Shakewell Racing attended the 2026 race as visitors, not competitors, so this is the fan route in rather than a competitor entry process. Tickets are sold through tickets.nuerburgring.de and the order page on 24h-rennen.de, with a booking fee of roughly 3.4-4.6% (minimum €2.50); print-at-home is free and posted tickets cost extra. 2026 advance prices were €74 event, €69 weekend, €62 race, €37 for Thursday or Friday and €35 for Sunday, with no Saturday-only day ticket, reduced rates for under-16s and guests with a disability, and free entry for children up to 12 with a ticket-holding adult. The fan-camping culture is a big part of the event, with the forests filling from the Monday. Note that as of 30 July 2026 no tickets were yet listed for the 55th running on 27-30 May 2027 — the shop still showed 2026 as sold out.

Worth knowing

• Notable: Max Verstappen's 24h Nürburgring debut ended in a driveshaft failure while his #3 Mercedes was leading, with 3h20m remaining. Attendance hit a record 352,000, breaking the previous 280,000 (2025) and the 14-year-old 2011 record of 250,000.