The6 Hours of Nürburgring (formerly theNürburgring 1000 km) was anendurance race forsports cars held on theNürburgring in Germany and organized by theADAC since 1953.
On the traditional 22.810 km longNordschleife ("Northern Loop") version, the competition took usually 44 laps (1003.64 km, since 1967 1004.74 km) and lasted about 8 hours, later less than 6 hours. While the 1974 event was shortened in the wake of the oil crisis, the 1976 race was extended by 3 laps and covered 1073.245 km.
The inaugural race, which counted towards the1953 World Sportscar Championship, was won byAlberto Ascari andGiuseppe Farina in aFerrari. The attendance at this inaugural event was disappointing, blamed in part on the lack of a serious German entrant. As a result, once it became clear that theMercedes-Benz 300 SLR would not be ready in time for the 1954 event the race was cancelled. The 1955 event suffered the same fate, but this time cancelled in the aftermath of the1955 Le Mans disaster.[1] It became quite popular in the 1960s and 1970s though, and even more so afterFormula One decided not to race at the Nürburgring after 1976 on safety grounds.
The last race on theNorthern Loop in 1983 was won byJochen Mass andJacky Ickx in theirRothmansPorsche 956. In that year, due to the ongoing construction work, the track had been shorted to 20.832 km and provisional pits were used. This event saw the fastest ever timed lap of the Nordschleife when German driverStefan Bellof lapped his Rothmans Porsche in 6:11.13 during practice, and an average of over 200 km/h. Bellof also set the race lap record during that race lapping in 6:25.91.
Since 1984, the 1000 km races were run on the new, much shorterGrand-Prix-Strecke, while the24 Hours Nürburgring stayed on the legendary long track. In 1991, the 1000 km races were first shortened to 480 km, then discontinued overall due to the demise of theWorld Sportscar Championship.
The 500 km Nürburgring was also similar event for smaller sportscars during the 1960s and 1970s.
VLN also runs a 6-hour endurance race, while covering only 4h in other heats. In 2010, for the first time a distance of more than 1000 km was covered by the winning Porsche 911 GT3.[2]
Current record of most wins belongs toStirling Moss who won the race in 1956, 1958, 1959, and 1960.
In 2010, the winningPorsche 911 GT3 R of the 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen race was the first[2] to cover more than 1000 km in a 6-hourVLN endurance race for GT3 and touring cars, lapping the 24.369 km long modern version of the Nordschleife 42 times for 1023.498 km in a time of 6:06:56.091. The 2012 winner, aMercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, covered the same distance in a time of only 6:01:29.541,[3] at an average of 169.879 km/h.
As a part of theOldtimer Festival in 2010 the tradition and name of the renownedADAC 1000 km of Nürburgring will be continued by the motor sport clubDAMC 05. In contrast to former years, the race is organised for older cars and therefore the term “classic” was added to the name.[4][5]
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