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The fiftieth running of the 24 hours of the Nürburgring takes place this weekend. The official ADAC 24h Rennen Nürburgring began in 1970, borrowing the 'amateur' touring car format of the Spa 24 Hours. As the touring car scene lost its way in the late 90s, the Nürburgring event opened up to the resurgent GT class two years earlier than Spa - although the German race has maintained a broad class structure, with the GT3 cars at the top of the pyramid. Here are some highlights from the previous 49 races...



After pre-qualifying races earlier in the month, 138 cars are on the entry list to tackle the green hell of the Nordschleife, plus whatever weather the Eifel mountains have in store. Those cars are covered by 21 different classes - from the top SP9 (GT3) class through other GT, touring car, road car and experimental classes. The full entry list and explanation of the classes can be found on the official website here: https://www.24h-rennen.de/en/the-protagonists/

Yes, the circuit is over 15 miles long, but 138 cars varying between just under 100bhp to over 700bhp makes this race a hair-raising 24 hours. And when the rain comes down and thick fog descends...



Weather forecasts for this weekend are hedging their bets, but a little rain and some early-morning mist are likely.

Coverage - in English or German - of qualifying and the full race is available free on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/24hnbr

There's coverage of two qualifying sessions today (Thursday) - the first has just finished and the second is from 7.25 to 10.30pm UK time. There's also in-car live footage, with a separate stream for each of a dozen cars across three classes - a brilliant way to get acclimatised to the Nordschleife. And there's a fixed camera in the pit lane to give a permanent live stream of what's going on there.

On Friday, the two sessions are at 13:05-14:25 hrs and 16:45-20:00 hrs UK time.

The race day stream begins at 12.50 UK time on Saturday lunchtime and continues through the start of the race at 3pm (UK time) until the dust has settled on the post-race celebrations around 3.30 on Sunday afternoon.

There's much more to read on the excellent official website: https://www.24h-rennen.de/en/home/