Schanbl Engineering Secures 1-2 Finish at 2026 Nürburgring Langstrecken-Series Finale
Nürburgring, Germany — Schanbl Engineering capped off the 2026 Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) season with a dominant performance, achieving a second consecutive 1-2 finish. The #17 Dunlop Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R, driven by Nico Menzel and Sven Müller, clinched victory in the 2nd NLS Sportwarte-Trophy, finishing 37.691 seconds ahead of the sister #44 Falken Motorsports car.
The race opened with a surprising front-row lockout by Gamota Racing’s two GT3 cars during qualifying. Pole-sitter David Jahn of the #23 BMW M4 GT3 Evo maintained his lead at the start, but soon faced intense competition from Adam Christodoulou, who advanced from fourth to second in the #26 PROsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO. However, contact later in the race forced the Mercedes to drop back.
Menzel, who started sixth, took the lead by the 90-minute mark, solidifying Schanbl Engineering’s dominance as they established a 1-2 gap by the third hour. This victory marked Schnabl Engineering’s third win of the season, with Menzel matching his father’s record of five overall NLS wins.
The podium was completed by the #77 Schubert Motorsport BMW driven by Jordan Pepper and Tim Tramnitz, who produced a recovery from 16th on the grid. Max Kruse Racing’s #75 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II finished fourth, followed by the SP9 Pro-Am-winning #48 Losch Motorsport Porsche, which edged past the #23 BMW on the final lap.
Key Class Wins and Championships
In the SP9 Am category, the #8 JUTA Racing Audi team of Alexey Veremenko and ‘SELV’ emerged victorious, besting the #36 Gamota Racing BMW. The Cup2 win went to the #900 Black Falcon Team Zimmerman Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992.1), although a post-race time penalty for the #921 Mühlner Motorsport Porsche places this result in a provisional state, pending possible appeal.
Edoardo Bugane, Yannick Fübrich, and Sven Markert secured the overall Drivers’ Championship with their seventh class win of the season in the #650 Adrenalin Motorsport BMW M240i Racing Cup, finishing with 109 points—an eight-point lead over competitors Alexander Fielenbach and Oskar Sandberg, who claimed the Cup3 title.
Other noteworthy trophies included the Production Car Trophy, awarded to Piet-Jan Ooms and Ionuc Catalin Timis in the #524 Toyota Supra, and the Gentleman Trophy to Alexandru Vasilescu in the #177 AV Racing BMW M4 GT4.
For further results, please refer to the official NLS standings.
Image courtesy of Jan Brucke/VLN.
