161 cars, 41 GT3s for 2026 Nürburgring 24 Hours

Credit: Luna Maas

A total of 161 cars will take on the Nürburgring Nordschlife next month for the 2026 edition of the Nürburgring 24 Hours.

A cap of 150 cars previously halted the growth of the entry list, but according to the event organisers “because many racing teams are limiting their space requirements, thereby making room for their competitors and colleagues.”

This now allows for the 161 car grid - the largest since 2014's 165 car grid - which includes a whopping 41 GT3 (SP9) cars.

The most notable of which comes from Winward Racing in partnership with Verstappen.com. Max Verstappen himself will bid for the win in the Pro class alongside Lucas Auer, Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon.

That entry is one of four from Mercedes in the Pro class, with others coming from PROsport Racing, KCMG and Mercedes AMG Tesm Ravenol. The remaining two cars come from SR Motorsport and Toyo Tires - both in SP9 Pro-Am.

The most present car on the SP9 grid though will be Porsche. They come with 12 entries in the class, with Pro entries from Dunlop, Falken, Lionspeed GP, 2 from Dinamic GT and one more from Manthey.

Aston Martin (four cars), Audi (four cars), BMW (five cars), Ferrari (one car), Ford (three cars), Lamborghini (four cars) - all of which are Huracans - and McLaren (one car) are all represented on the grid for the top class.

Two of those five BMWs will not be M4s, but 2013 Evo versions of the E89 Z4. One will be run by Saugmotoren Motorsport and the other by W.I.S Racing Team powered by Koopman Racing. They will both be in the race for SP9 Am honours.

Last years overall winners are returning too, ROWE Racing come with the No.1 car of Augusto Farfus, Raffaele Marciello, Jordan Pepper and Kelvin van der Linde and the No.16 car of Dan Harper, Max Hesse, Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor.

More notable entries come in the five car SP X class. BMW will return to the 'ring with their M3 Touring GT3 that began life as an April fools joke. They'll be competing with three HWA Evo R's, which are all modernised versions of the iconic 1990s DTM Mercedes 190E.

The final car in the class comes in the form of a KTM X-Bow GTX machine from Reiter Engineering.

Ollis Garage's fan-favourite Dacia Logan will return once more in the SP 3T class.

The Black Falcon 'YouTuber car' has it's place on the grid too. Jimmy Broadbent, Steve Brown (SuperGT), Misha Charoudin and Manuel Metzger will drive their No.632 Porsche Cup car in the AT2 class.

Elsewhere on the grid there will be 11 Cup 2 cars, 32 GT4s (SP10), 17 Cup 3 cars and 10 TCR cars among many others on the jam-packed grid.

You can view the full entry list here.

Race director Walter Hornung has said; “We are delighted with the extraordinary response to the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring 2026."

“The fact that we can bring this large and high-calibre field to the start is only possible because so many teams have cooperated.

“I would like to express my sincere thanks for that. This demonstrates the special spirit of the endurance racing community at the Nordschleife: from world-class stars to amateur drivers, everyone is pulling together because everyone wants to be part of this special race.”

The green flag for the race will drop on the 16th of May.