NLS9 2026: First season win for Falken under the toughest conditions

– Wild weather swings, high-profile retirements, and a championship drama: The 66th ADAC-ACAS-Cup, as the penultimate round of the Nürburgring Endurance Series (NLS) 2026, once again threw everything into the balance that the Eifel had to offer. (Result)

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The first half of the race already had a lot to offer after a dry start. Rain began in the sixth lap, and by lap eight it became so heavy that some cars headed to the pits to switch to rain tires.

There followed a short period during which the track dried. From halfway through the race, the rain intensified and rain tires became mandatory. In the last hour, conditions became really difficult. For several minutes, borderline conditions prevailed, where even the heavy rain tires reached their limits and had to be lifted on straights due to aquaplaning risk.

Double victory for Schnabl and the Schuring family

No matter the weather, the strongest in this race was clearly the Falken Porsche #44 (Heinemann/M. Schuring; 1st), which secured the win without trouble. Morris Schuring built a small lead from pole position in the dry. Later, the Falken rain tire was in its element, as there was no direct competitor on Michelin.

“Exciting would be a huge understatement. I’ve never experienced such bad conditions as today. It was really aquaplaning in every corner, on every straight. I’m very relieved that we survived,” says Heinemann.

“It was just about bringing the car to the finish, but even then I still had aquaplaning. Even when I tried to slow down, the conditions were extremely difficult today.” Morris Schuring admits: “I was already glad to be in the pit lane.”

The battle for second place was fierce between the Dunlop Porsche #17 (Menzel/F. Schuring), the Black Falcon Porsche #48 (Assenheimer/T. Müller/Pereira) on Goodyear tires, and the Walkenhorst Aston Martin #35 (Krognes/Fetzer/Villagomez) on Pirelli tires.

The fight was ultimately won by the Dunlop Porsche, giving Schnabl Engineering the double victory. Additionally, it was a family double win for the Schuring family – and this at the very first GT3 outing of the younger brother Flynt.

“That was incredible! My first weekend in GT3 and also the first time with the GT3 on the Nordschleife. In such a race with slicks in the rain – I drove five laps on them, then switched to rain tires. That was super difficult, but I am extremely happy to be on the podium here,” gushes Flynt Schuring, who can rightly be proud after this baptism of fire.

Teammate Menzel pays respect: “He did a great job, that was insane. The first time in such conditions – it doesn’t really get worse on the Nordschleife. In the end, it was really like motorboating, so much aquaplaning. At some point, the car just started to float. Certainly, there was some luck involved, but we all managed it quite well. There were definitely one or two scary moments.”

Brother Morris admits it will take time to let the family triumph sink in: “Somehow everything feels quite normal right now, but probably in two or three weeks we’ll look back and think: That was really cool.”

Tobias Müller causes a stir

The Black Falcon Porsche had a wild race. Tobias Müller experienced a one-and-a-half stint that could fill books. Initially, he was at the front in the dry and engaged in a thrilling duel with Nico Menzel for second place. Then he missed a Code-60 flag and crashed into the rear of the VW Golf #494 (Schönfeld/Neuber/Pellegrino Fernandes).

With a damaged front end, he had to return to the pits, and he also received a drive-through penalty for the collision. In the tenth lap, during the first rain shower, he had a huge spin in the Mutkurve between Kesselchen and Klostertal without hitting anything.

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“I was incredibly lucky that we spun 180 degrees. I actually saw the impact coming. Then I had to get out of the situation first. The mobility in the car is very limited. Somehow I managed to look to the right. I was then able to get the car back on the track,” says Müller.

Without the penalty and the spin, the Black Falcon Porsche would have even been a contender for the overall win. Even with the double time loss, Dylan Pereira fought down Christian Krognes and then Nico Menzel at the end. However, at the last stop, although he stopped a lap later, he lost a lot of ground to the Dunlop Porsche and settled for third place and the win in SP9 Pro-Am.

Krognes fended off an attack from Moritz Kranz in the final phase, who became a threat on the Gamota BMW #23 (Zsigo/Kranz/Jahn; 5th) on Michelin tires but had to make the last pit stop first among all cars and thus had the longest stationary time. Thus, Walkenhorst took second place and Gamota third place in Pro-Am.

Missed opportunities for Schubert and KCMG

A somewhat disappointing race was experienced by the HRT Ford #64 (Stippler/Kolb; 6th), which fell back early in the start phase and never really made an impact afterwards. All the more, the crew of the Car Collection Audi #22 (Spengler/Hantke/Jöns; 7th) must be pleased. Car Collection Motorsport was competing for the first time with the R8 LMS GT3 Evo II at the double-header.

Behind the Dinamic Porsche #54 (Hartog/Christensen/Cabirou; 8th) on Pirelli tires around Shanghai hero Loek Hartog, the Black Falcon Porsche #5 (Arrow/Kaya/Stursberg; 9th) took the win in SP9 Am, followed by the Cup2 winner, the Sorg Porsche #901 (Grütter/Grosse; 10th), completing the top 10.

After a strong performance on Saturday, the Max Kruse Audi #75 (M. Fugel/D. Fugel/Leuchter; 11th) was inconspicuous on Sunday but secured the win in AT1.

The winner of the previous day, the Schubert BMW #77 (Klingmann/de Wilde/Pepper; DNF) did not get far on Sunday: Already in the first rain shower at the end of the first hour, Ugo de Wilde slid off the track at Brünnchen and the race was over. This deprived the Schubert team, which had won two races in one day on Saturday, of important development opportunities in the rain with partner Yokohama.

A major contender for victory in these conditions would have been the KCMG Mercedes #47 (Fukuzumi/Tsuboi; DNS) thanks to its Michelin tires. However, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 was involved in a major accident on the Breidscheid Bridge during qualifying and could not start the race. The team from Hong Kong missed a big opportunity here.

Retirement for championship leader, but second place misses class win

There was a dramatic development in the championship. For the first time this year, the Adrenalin M240i #650 (Bugane/Fübrich/Markert) retired. In the NLS 2026 season, there are no dropped scores due to one canceled and one non-classified race.

“It is definitely not an accident. At the moment, we don’t know what the cause is,” said team boss Matthias Unger shortly after the retirement was reported. This opened the door wide for the championship fight.

However, Oskar Sandberg and Alexander Fielenbach in the Smyrlis Cayman #953 missed the class win in Cup3 by 39 seconds against the W&S Cayman #962 (Stegmann/Oberheim) and thus could not catch up in the standings. On the other hand, Adrenalin Motorsport missed a possible early title win.

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The final, the 2nd NLS Sportwarte Trophy, will take place on October 10.