The last tents, speakers and stage elements of Rock am Ring festival have only just been packed up and the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring (19 – 22 June 2025), the next huge festival at the Eifel racetrack, is already on the horizon. For one week, the most beautiful and longest race track in the world will be firmly in the hands of Germany’s biggest automotive racing event, where the elite of GT3 drivers and teams will battle it out for the prestigious trophy. Dozens of racing cars in 20 different classes will take to the track with them to compete twice around the clock for the highly desired winners’ trophies. The motorsport programme starts on Corpus Christi Thursday (19 June) with the first qualifying sessions and support races. In the days leading up to this, the area around the traditional asphalt strip will be transformed into a motorsport festival site.
24 hours through the legendary ‘Green Hell’ – 141 teams are taking on this challenge this year, more than at any time since 2019. Twenty-seven of them will compete in the SP9 class alone, which brings together the spectacular GT3 cars. They are also likely to fight it out for victory in the 53rd edition of the race. With Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Ford, Lamborghini, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche, eight manufacturers are represented in the class with the most participants at the 24h Nürburgring, with the Porsche teams being the favourites. With the 911 GT3 R (992), they were at the top of the podium in all of the pre-races for the 2025 season.
Accordingly, the pressure of expectation is now on the teams responsible for the series of successes: Falken Motorsport with the two 911 with the starting numbers #33 and #44 is just as much a candidate for victory as the traditional team Manthey EMA (#911) and last year’s winners from Scherer Sport PHX (#16). However, the latter will not be sticking the defending champions’ starting number #1 on the Porsche they are fielding, but on the Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II, which is also based at the team, because last year it clinched the seventh overall victory for an R8 since 2012, and two pole positions in the current season of the Nürburgring Endurance Series (NLS) show that the GT3 from Ingolstadt is still competitive even after production has been discontinued. A total of four of the successful Ingolstadt models are competing this year, although two of them are classified as a ‘ProAm’ and ‘Am’ team respectively – in other words, they are focussing on the battle between the amateur and semi-professional teams.
Who will be first in pursuit?
The two Mercedes-AMG GT3s entered by the successful GetSpeed team are more likely to be the first Porsche chasers: With a strong driver line-up, they recently cut a strong figure in the 24h Qualifiers races, which are also counted towards the NLS, and were able to match the pace of the Porsches. The Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 entered by Abt also left a strong impression at the qualifiers, which will be the spearhead of the four-car Lambo faction at the 24h. And, of course, the other teams represented in this class will do everything in their power to prevent the 14th Porsche victory in 24h history.
Excitement as early as qualifying
An important milestone on the way to the winners’ trophies will be the top qualifying session on Friday afternoon (20 June). It will be held in a slightly different format this year and take place in a one-part sequence. This year, a total of 17 vehicles – just over 60 per cent of the GT3 cars – will be eligible for the individual time trial for pole and the best grid positions, of which twelve places have been allocated so far. The most successful teams in the NLS preparation races have qualified for these, with a further five places going to the fastest in the combined classification from the first and second 24-hour qualifying sessions on Thursday. This ensures a good deal of extra excitement on this first day of competition, and consequently the first 15 minutes of the traditional night qualifying session on the evening of Corpus Christi Day are also reserved for the GT3s, which can thus unleash their full potential on the open track.
Fierce battles in 20 classes
The battle for the grid positions behind the top qualifying contenders will be exciting on Friday afternoon, as the third 24-hour qualifying session will be held after the Top Qualifying for the first time. The competition in the 20 classes is likely to be particularly fierce in the well-filled Cup classes of the Porsche and BMW M240i as well as in the ‘small’ VLN production cars (VT2). Excitement is also in the air among the AT cars, which race day and night with alternative fuels such as biofuels and eFuels. A total of 17 different manufacturers are at the start, including splashes of colour such as the motorsport exotics from Dacia or the Chinese Lynk&Co. The top dogs are 54 Porsches and 32 BMWs, which are the most represented across the starting field – incidentally, the Bavarians are also the only brand besides Volkswagen to have been represented at every edition since the very first 24h Nürburgring in 1970.
A week of festival flair in the Eifel
The ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring will once again be more than just a car race this year – it is traditionally a cheerful festival where thousands of fans set off to camp in the Eifel forests surrounding the circuit. As early as Monday morning (16 June), the on-demand campsites at the Nordschleife are opened and taken up by the many fan groups. Until the first wheel turns on the track on Thursday, a gigantic festival site will have been created under the banner of motorsport. The first official meeting between visitors and active participants will take place on Wednesday (18 June) in Adenau. The ‘Racing Day’ in the racing town at the Nürburgring starts at 16:00 and participants from the 24h and supporting programme can be seen here with their vehicles during interview rounds and autograph sessions until 19:00. The band ‘Heizer Monkeys’, who have released a song for the race, will also be performing.
Not a day without a race at the Ring
The action on the track traditionally kicks off on Thursday morning with the RCN Rundstrecken Challenge Nürburgring, whose performance test demonstrates how attractive motorsport can be for ambitious amateurs. At the same time, the qualifying sessions for the Touring Car Legends and the Cup and Touring Car Trophy will take place on the Grand Prix circuit. With a total of five races, the two series ensure that there is racing action to be experienced every day before the start of the 24h Nürburgring, with the historic vehicles of the Touring Car Legends battling for points and placings on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Cup and Touring Car Trophy races are scheduled for Thursday and Friday. Another highlight of the supporting programme will be the traditional ADAC 24h-Classic, whose organisers have once again announced a ‘full house’: 210 vehicles will be competing, with many special drivers taking part. With Peter Oberndorfer, Markus Oestreich, Volker Strycek and Bernd Schneider, four former 24h overall winners will be competing. Rob Huff (2012 World Touring Car Champion) and Kurt Thiim (1986 DTM Champion) have also signed up.