The spat between the two racing series is reaching a new level as the ADAC-organised N24h Qualifiers are going to count towards NLS in 2024, whilst AvD is still lacking tangible information about how its series will look with two months to go until the season starts.
Several stakeholders from the industry and racing teams were invited on 19t January to the official online kickoff meeting by NES. After the meeting, several teams voiced their disappointment about the vague information provided to them by AvD.
"My customer wants to know what it will cost, when he will race and what is offered," one team boss told Motorsport-Total.com and mocked the presentation as a "Mardi Gras Event", a deprecative way in German to describe an event that can't be taken seriously.
Prosport team boss Christoph Esser labelled the content of the presentation by AvD chief executive Lutz Leif Linden and NES CEO Ralph-Gerald Schluter as ham-handed.
This information has been provided by NES:
- Vehicles will be divided into three divisions with the class structure still unknown
- The divisions are: Production cars, Improved cars and Race cars
- Compatibility with "other endurance races"
- Dual points system favours overall victory candidates
- New, compact entry-level class in cooperation with the industry
- Hybrid drive and sustainable fuels for sustainability
- "NES Light" that finishes after two hours within 4-hour races
Germany's ASN DMSB has confirmed to Motorsport-Total.com that the draft of a regulation has been proposed by AvD and is currently under review - a process that takes several weeks. Nevertheless, AvD has failed to present a fully functioning organisation of the planned events up to this day, still leaving a big question mark over the series.
At least, a calendar consisting of five dates was published on Friday. The season opener on 22-23 March, however, is set to take place at the GP track with three sprint races - each for one division - indicating a lack of staff for Nordschleife races.
And now there is more trouble brewing for NES after several teams that were invited to the presentation on 19 January received an email from VLN chairman Mike Jager in which he admitted a data breach.
It is understood that former NLS employees now working for NES are suspected to be the source of the breach. According to Jager's mail, the German data protection authority has been called in. He described the breach as "no trifle".
Power game on the back of teams and region
The situation has developed into an open war between the Russian Nurburgring owner NR Holding on one side and ADAC, responsible for more than 80 percent of racing events at the Eifel venue, on the other side, with Nurburgring Endurance Racing acting as the main battlefield in the power game between the two.
On the same day as the NES kickoff meeting, N24h organiser ADAC Nordrhein and VLN released a statement that the Nurburgring 24 Hours Qualifiers will count towards NLS in 2024, also promising a tighter cooperation between the two bodies.
The VLN had been pushed into the ADAC's fold by the events in 2023 as six of the nine regional clubs making up VLN Sport are within the ADAC.
With another legal battle brewing (VLN is also yet to fight the main trail against the Nurburgring in its antitrust proceedings following the speedy trial that ended on January 4th), teams and drivers still left without fixed regulations by any of the two series, there is even more frustration among the racing community.
Furthermore, the whole Eifel region that is dependent on the Nurburgring is faced with yet another blow, already having fought against a triple assault over the last years with COVID, cost of living crisis and economic fallouts following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
