Nürburgring Classic 26-28 May 2023

Written by Guus Docen

Just one week after the ADAC 24 hours endurance race at the Nordschleife, the fifth edition of the ADAC Nürburgring Classic was held from May 26 to 28 May on the legendary Nordschleife and Grand Prix Track. The weather conditions couldn’t be better, sunshine and 20 degrees Celsius. Regularity runs as well as races were held on the 5.4 km long Grand Prix course. They was a great gathering of the German Ford Capri Club and the British BMW M3 Club. The owners could drive the Nordschleife for 30 minutes.

The old paddock was filled with more than hundred racing cars from the pre-war era. The owners could drive their precious cars on the Nordschleife on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. In total four hours of enjoyment on this legendary track !
For this event it seems to be difficult to get full and therefore attractive starting fields onto the track. For instance in the CanAm & Sportscars + Group C race just twelve cars were registered. Formula 1 cars in general are the spectators magnet of a classic racing event, unfortunately a real race wasn’t in the programme. There was a demonstration run of the FORCE F1 Legends with eight cars from the 1970s to the 1990s. Three of the cars were Ferraris from Modena Motorsport of which the ex-Jacky Ickx type 312 B2 from 1972 was the most special.
The successful series of touring cars and GTs, the Youngtimer Trophy, was devided in two starting grids. Grid 1 with the 52 touring cars from the sixties and seventies up to 2000 cc. like the NSU TT, Opel Kadett C Coupé, VW Golf Mark I, VW Scirocco, Mini Cooper and even a Chevrolet Camaro and Lada 2101 ! The other grid were 34 fast cars over 2000 cc. from the seventies and eighties like the Porsche Carrera RSR, BMW M3 and BMWs of the E36 series.
Biggest starting grid of this event were the small cars from the racing series Battle of the Dwarfs. In total 54 cars like Mini Cooper, NSU TT, Simca Rally 2, Fiat Abarth 1000 TC, Autobianchi A112, Fiat 128 Coupé and also a Simca 1200 S Coupé, Alfa Romeo 1300 GTA and Renault Alpine A110 1300. These cars performed a great show on Saturday but sadly the race on Sunday-afternoon ended with a fatal accident. A Dutch Mini driver suffered a heart attack on the start-finish straight and crashed into the tyre wall behind the chicane. A sad end of a nice historic racing weekend. The ADAC Nürburgring Classic is still a not-to-be missed event for the classic car enthusiast !