Imagine having no knowledge of the Nürburgring 24 and you just show up in town, and the streets are full of people, race cars and free pizza on the ground.
Photography by J.G. Pasterjak
Some of the most interesting stuff at a Nürburgring race weekend happens on those days leading up to the big show. With the 24-hour race taking place this Saturday and Sunday, here’s what we’ve been checking out this week.
[Schedule: 2025 ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring]
Like most race weekends, this one starts with tech inspection. Cars start the tech conga line under a tent, where many of the previously inspected and stickered items will get verified. Checks are also done on a lot of the required electronic telemetry hardware and external position indicators.
Cars then roll onto the scales for weighing plus a few other hardware checks.
Some classes make a final stop in another bay to have some controlled parameters, like alignment settings and ride height, verified and logged as well.
[The high-tech lessons you can learn from historic race cars]
Prerace is a great time to take extended looks at some of the hardware in its undressed form. Once the action starts, you won’t get a chance for an extended peek at the heavily skeletonized Alcon calipers on an Aston Martin GT3 car, for example.
Nor will you be able to see how little of the original front structure remains on the BMW M4 or Ford Mustang GT3 cars. Or how much of the stock structure is still in place (although heavily augmented) on the AMG machine. Even the Subaru STi crew was impressed with the AMG. We caught them taking a peek after their work was all caught up.
The Nürburgring Classic 24 is basically the coolest Gen-X high school parking lot you could ever imagine come to life. You had pictures of most of these cars taped to the inside of your locker.
Checking out everyone’s pit setups is always fun and can yield some great ideas. Every team has its variation on the “one corner” service tray, which includes everything a tech might need to service a single corner of the car during a stop.
We also saw a couple crew guys mapping out their refueling boundaries, which could save them a lot of hassle on a busy pit lane. Every car in the N24 refuels from commercial-style fuel pumps located between each pit garage stall. This team was extending the hose on its pump and taping out a boundary representing the limit of the reach of the hose and nozzle. When they stopped, if the fuel fill wasn’t inside that boundary, they weren’t getting gas.
Before the action starts is a great time to visit the vendors and check out cool new products. We loved these high-tech in-ear radio buds that race-ear.de was cooking up in the paddock. Race-ear.de specializes in medical hearing aids, but some enthusiastic company principals have recently expanded its offerings to the motorsport community.
For around €400, the company makes a 3D scan of your ear canal in its converted Airstream trailer right in the paddock. From there, it uses proprietary software to model the inside of your ear, design a 3D-printed insert for the speaker, and about 4 hours later, delivers a finished product with the radio connection of your choice.
As someone who has previously had the two-part hardening plastic style of in-ear radio monitors, this sounds like a much more pleasant experience than having that cold goo shot into your ears and sitting there while it hardens.
Racer and fellow Florida Man Gino Manley started his racing journey doing track days in his Mazda2. Now he’s contesting the Nürburgring 24.
[Running in an IMSA race on a grassroots budget]
“This was definitely a bucket-list thing,” he told us. “It’s kind of the last major 24-hour endurance race that guys like us can really aspire to do and have a realistic shot at making that dream come true.”
Gino will be competing in a BMW M240iR with a U.K.-based team, and we’ll keep up with his progress over the weekend.
Finally, if you miss the day before the race, you miss the party. The entire downtown section of Adenau, which sits adjacent to the northern boundary of the Nürburgring, transforms into a huge street party for Adenau Racing Days on the Wednesday evening before the action kicks off.
Dozens of top teams bring over their cars and parade them through the crowded streets, signing autographs and hanging out with fans who are there for a closer look (and for a party). You might even see a good portion of a pizza lying in the street (do not eat the street pizza).
Imagine having no knowledge of the Nürburgring 24 and you just show up in town, and the streets are full of people, race cars and free pizza on the ground.
For me, this race and the Isle of Man TT are "must watch" tv/streaming.
In reply to Coniglio Rampante :
I'd also add the Aurum 1006 km.
In reply to Colin Wood :
Yes, that race is what street racer-brah's *think/dream* they're doing when they take over a random road at 11p.m. on a Sunday night.
And so many more great races at great venues. I could have listed 10 or 20 just as easily as the two I chose...which I chose those two because the venues are the real "stars" to me, more than any other place I could name (Pike's Peak, maybe Mount Panorama, too).
Its a great time to be a fan with all of the live-streaming opportunities out there.
In reply to Colin Wood :
As someone who doesn't like leaving my home very often, I think that would be the best outcome ever.
Some qualifying being streamed. Love "slow zones" vs full course yellows, all the different classes and ages of cars, fans allowed on track during the parade lap, and the sharing of pit space...not many places do that.
Displaying 1-6 of 6 commentsView all comments on the GRM forums
You'll need to log in to post.
