Early exit for Falken Motorsports at the 2026 ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring

Despite a strong performance, Falken Motorsports did not have the necessary racing luck at this year’s ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring. After an impressive comeback, the Japanese tyre manufacturer’s team was forced to end the race prematurely in the first half following an unfortunate accident. Up until that point, Klaus Bachler, Morris Schuring, Sven Müller, and Tim Heinemann had been battling for top positions in front of more than 350,000 spectators along the Nordschleife, steadily working their way up the field with consistently fast lap times.

After a less-than-ideal qualifying session, the teal-and-blue Falken Porsche with start number 44 began this year’s 24-hour race from 17th position. Starting driver Tim Heinemann handled the hectic opening phase on the Nordschleife with confidence and stayed out of all incidents before handing the cockpit over to his teammates. The Falken drivers also handled the changing conditions in the early evening, with rain setting in, exceptionally well thanks to a strong performance by the Falken tyres. After just a few hours, the team had already closed the gap to the top five.

Shortly before midnight, however, the race came to an abrupt end for Falken Motorsports after just under nine hours: while lapping another car, Morris Schuring hit the curb and subsequently lost control of the Porsche, which crashed sideways into the guardrails. Despite an attempt to drive the car back to the pits under its own power, the damage was too severe, so the team decided to end the race early. Up to that point, Falken Motorsports had impressively demonstrated the potential of the overall package consisting of the car, drivers, and tyres.

The race went much more successfully for the numerous Falken customer teams that also competed in the 24h race at the Nürburgring: The #88 Subaru WRX from Subaru Tecnica International completed a flawless race and was rewarded with 32nd place overall and a class victory in SP4T. In second place in the class was another race car on Falken tyres: the #50 VW Golf GTI Clubsport 24h from Max Kruse Racing. The #380 Opel Corsa GS Line 130 from Bitter, driven by Volker Strycek among others, also secured victory in the SP2T class.

The #524 Toyota Supra from SRS Team Sorg Rennsport finished 61st overall and second in the VT2 RWD class. In the same class, the #514 BMW 330i from SRS Team Sorg Rennsport finished fifth. Less fortunate, however, were the two Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo IIs (#19 and #75) from Max Kruse Racing, which failed to finish the turbulent 24h race.