Nürburgring 1000km

The ADAC 1000km Nürburgring is an Endurance racing and Sports car racing event on the Nürburgring in Germany, organized by the ADAC since 1953.

History
On the traditional 22.8km long Nordschleife ("Northern Loop") version, the competition took usually 44 laps and lasted about 8 hours, later less than 6 hours.

The first event that counted towards the World Sportscar Championship was won by Alberto Ascari/Giuseppe Farina on a Ferrari. Due to disappointing attendance, the race was not held in the following two years. It became quite popular in the 1960s and 1970s though, and even more so after F1 boycotted the Nürburgring after 1976.

The last race on the (already shortened) Northern Loop in 1983 was won by a Porsche 956. In that year, the track had been shorted to 20.8km and provisional pits were used, due to the ongoing construction work.

Since 1984, the 1000km races were run on the new, much shorter Grand-Prix-Strecke, while the 24 Hours Nürburgring stayed on the legendary long track. Until 1991, the 1000km races were first shortened to 480km, then discontinued due to decline of sportscar racing in general.

In 2000, the 1000km were resumed, with new competitive cars of BMW and Audi. The race was held as a part of the European Le Mans Series (ELMS), the Euro version of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). In a wet race, the unusual frontengine-powered Panoz of Jan Magnussen/David Brabham won, ahead of a BMW V12, an Audi R8 and the second Panoz.

On September 4 2005, the 1000km was held as a part of the Le Mans Endurance Series (LMES).

The 500km Nürburgring was a similar event, for smaller sportscars. In VLN Endurance races which usually last 4 hours, distances of well over 500 km are covered by the winners.