There is major upheaval in the tight knit world of VLN racing as a group of significant teams, now dubbed the ‘Syndicate Endurance Nurburgring’ or ILN has collaborated to make it clear to the German motorsport governing body the DMSB that they will withdraw from racing at the Nurburgring unless a number of major concerns about advancing regulation and bureaucracy are dealt with.

The teams, including such significant players as Manthey Racing, Frikadelli Racing, Black Falcon, Car Collection and Jürgen Alzen Racing account for c.100 regular VLN and Nurburgring 24 Hour entrants and reportedly also have the support of race organisers ADAC and the VLN for their stance.

The issues surround ‘serious errors in central regulations for racing on the Nordschleife’ with Olaf Manthey, appointed spokesman for the ILN group making it clear that a major part of the issue was the outcome of a DMSB convened working group of experienced drivers including Dirk Adorf, Marc Lieb, Arno Klasen, Altfrid Heger and Markus Oestrich.

The driver’s group developed a series of proposals after “many conversations with teams, marshalls and officials” but these have reportedly been ignored by the DMSB.

The ILN is calling for those proposals to be implemented and “as long as there is no agreement on the proposals of the driver working group, the teams will not start either VLN races or the ADAC 24 Hours.”

The ILN’s position is that the DMSB have chosen, rather than taking on board the proposals from experienced stakeholders, to instead “impose bureacracy with rising costs to both teams and drivers whilst the chosen solutions become more complex and more difficult to implement.

These include:

Code-60 control

DSMB introduced a regulation at the start of 2014 that accident sites would be protected by a ‘Code 60’ with a maximum speed of 60km/h through a ‘danger zone’ but the ILN maintains that after several attempts there has still not been an safe and acceptable method of implementation found on the Nordschleife. The Drivers Working Group suggested a specially convened group to examine international safety concepts which the DMSB has not approved.

Nordschleife Race Permit

Early in 2015 the DMSB introduced a Permit to race on the Nordschleife, designed to ensure that all drivers have sufficient experience at the Nürburgring before being allowed to participate in the ADAC 24-hour race or a VLN race.

The ILN’s position is that “bureaucracy has gained the upper hand” effectively preventing drivers from developing a skillset at the track in lesser classes of racing.

The Driver’s Working Group suggested that entry into the long distance races should be more simple in the lower powered classes but a promotion to the faster classes should only be possible with appropriate Nordschleife experience.

The group felt that experience in the RCN (Rundstrecken Challenge) and the Young-Timers classic cars series should count towards a driver’s permit to race in the longer distance events

Neither this proposal pre-programmed eLearning tool for driver and track safety were accepted by the DMSB. Neither has a mandatory final test for new drivers been confirmed.

The ILN made it clear this evening that they have expressly agreed to the proposals of the driver working group today and has called for their immediate implementation by the DSMB.

“It is unacceptable that the DMSB has ignored the experience of experienced and active drivers when it comes to safety-related decisions.”