Note : Following a multi-week post-race deliberation and the disqualification of the second-place finisher for a technical violation, the official final standings are updated to #81 at 4th overall (Class 1st), #67 at 7th overall (Class 6th), and #77 at 8th overall (Class 7th).
The 24h Nürburgring is renowned as one of the world’s most grueling and challenging races. For the 2026 event, the main race was contested from Saturday, May 16 to Sunday, May 17. The “BMW M3 Touring 24H (Team: BMW M Motorsport),” competing in the SP-X class equipped with Yokohama’s “ADVAN” tires, secured a dominant class victory by leaving the second-place finisher far behind. Furthermore, it achieved an impressive 5th place in the overall standings, matching the top competitors in the premier SP9 class.
Nürburgring, nicknamed the “Green Hell,” features a 25,378-meter course that runs through the Eifel forest. In addition to being a challenging track, it is characterized by highly unstable weather. As race week began, “Racing Day,” held in the downtown area of Adenau on Wednesday the 13th, was unfortunately rainy. However, a large number of local residents and race fans from around the world who had been eagerly awaiting this annual “festival” thoroughly enjoyed the parade of machines ahead of the actual battle.
Official qualifying sessions took place on Thursday the 14th and Friday the 15th. On Thursday, the maximum temperature remained in the single digits, creating conditions where everyone at the circuit had to dress warmly to withstand the cold. Rain from the morning subsided during the day, bringing brief glimpses of sunshine, but shortly after, clouds covered the sky again and brought hail, making it a truly troublesome weather pattern. On Friday, the weather improved, and Top Qualifying 1 and 2 from the morning were held in dry conditions. However, during Qualifying 3 before noon, heavy rain fell in parts of the Nordschleife mid-session. Afterward, the sun returned, and Top Qualifying 3 in the afternoon, which determined the final starting grid for the race, was run in mostly dry conditions.
Despite the qualifying sessions being at the mercy of the weather, the Yokohama Tire contingent— competing with three teams and five cars in the SP9 class and one car in the SP-X class—performed strongly. The No. 45 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo (REALIZE KONDO RACING with Rinaldi) secured 5th place overall. For HRT Ford Racing, which fielded three Ford Mustang GT3 EVOs, the No. 64 car took 7th, the No. 67 took 12th, and the No. 65 took 14th. The No. 77 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, competing in the SP9 class from BMW M Motorsport through its partnership with Yokohama Tire, qualified 15th. Meanwhile, the No. 81 BMW M3 Touring 24H, also from BMW M Motorsport competing in the SP-X class, took the top spot in its class and 22nd position overall.
On Saturday the 16th, the long-awaited race day, there was no rain when the battle commenced at 15:00 local time, but the temperature remained chilly in the single digits. Nevertheless, for the first time in the event’s 57-year history, advance tickets were completely sold out. Ultimately, according to the organizers’ announcement, a massive crowd of 352,000 spectators cheered and energized the intense, round-the-clock battle.
The race became turbulent from the very beginning, and leading teams expected to fight for the overall victory began disappearing from the field one after another. Unfortunately, this included the No. 45 car. Approaching the two-hour mark from the start, it demonstrated great speed by recording the fastest lap. Shortly after, however, the car lost composure while overtaking a slower car from another class and hit the guardrail, forcing an unfortunate retirement.
Furthermore, due to rain on the Nordschleife, numerous accidents occurred. The No. 64 car went off the track and crashed before sunset. As the sun went down, the “demon dwelling in the Eifel forest” bared its fangs even further. After the date changed to Sunday the 17th, the No. 65 car, which had been lapping smoothly until then, was forced to stop its machine at Mutkurve.
As the event increasingly took on the aspect of a survival race over time, the No. 81 car of BMW M Motorsport continued to clock stable lap times. It completed laps with a performance rivaling the premier SP9 class vehicles, holding a spot within the overall top five. Additionally, the No. 67 car drove powerfully through the major changes in track surface conditions, reaching the midpoint of the race in a single-digit position.
When morning arrived, the survival nature of the race remained unchanged. In addition to wet patches, some parts of the track became slippery with oil, keeping the situation completely unpredictable. Under these conditions, the No. 81 car also had a close call by going off the track, but with skillful vehicle control, it safely returned to the course and continued lapping toward the checkered flag.
The race became even more severe in its closing stages, with some top-running machines hit by trouble. Ultimately, the 2026 24h Nürburgring turned into a fierce war of attrition, with only 111 of the 159 starters finishing, and only 22 of the 41 premier SP9 class starters—about half—completing the race. Amidst this, three cars equipped with “ADVAN” tires—the No. 81, No. 67, and No. 77—showed powerful driving and successfully brought their machines to the checkered flag.
The No. 81 car secured an overwhelming victory in the SP-X class and finished 5th overall on the same lap as the leader. The station wagon-bodied racing machine, which began as an “April Fool’s joke” and garnered attention from around the world, left a result that writes a new page in the long history of the
Nürburgring. Additionally, the No. 67 car took the checkered flag in 7th in its class, and the No. 77 car finished 8th in its class, both successfully fighting through the long and grueling 24 hours in single-digit positions.
