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VLN (Veranstaltergemeinscht Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring)

VLN is the acronym for Veranstaltergemeinschaft Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring, or The Association of Organisers of the Endurance Racing Cup on the Nürburgring. It is also still widely used for the series of 10 races they organize, even though this was renamed to "BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft (BFGLM)", or BFGoodrich Endurance Championship, in 2001.

The VLN series is closely associated with the 24 Hours Nürburgring, as it has similar rules (again), and mainly the same participants. In the calendar, several weeks around the 24h date in May/June are taken off to allows teams to prepare for the 24h, and to fix their cars afterwards. The 24h is not part of the championship anymore, though.

The organisation was founded in 1977 to join the efforts of ten Motorsport-Clubs, which are members of ADAC or Deutscher Motorsportverband (DMV). Previously, each club had run its own touring car racing event on the Nürburgring, lasting for 3.5 to 6 hours, with about 150 cars and 400 drivers taking part. The rules were unified and the races were made part of a series. The winners of the series were awarded a Cup (German Pokal), sponsored by Veedol lubrication products. Due to this, both were simply called "Veedol-Cup" for many years. Since the change of sponsorship and it the official recognition by Deutscher Motor Sport Bund (DMSB) as the German endurance championship (German Meisterschaft) in 2001, the former Veedol Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring is now the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring. The name of the VLN organisation stays the same, though, which is reflected by their website addresses and title.

Each VLN race is held as a "one day event" on Saturdays only, in order to limit costs. The drivers briefing is at 7:45, practice is from 8:30 to 10:00. The race starts at 12:00. After parc fermé is opened and the winners are honoured, the teams can travel home on race day. At some events, the schedule also accommodates additional sprint races of visiting other series, mainly Classic cars and Youngtimers.

The "6 hours" are considered the season highlight - in 1998, even Sir Jack Brabham took part, at age 72. Here, 2 to 4 drivers per cars are entered, while in all others races, a single driver can drive all alone for 4 hours, or up to 3 can form a team. Another highlight is the last race, also called "Schinkenrennen", as large pieces of Ham from the Münsterland area are presented to the winners of the various classes, to the delight of the hungry team members.

Participants of VLN races range from amateurs in small road legal cars with roll cages and harnesses to professional factory teams racing ex-DTM cars, or Porsche 996 GT3 RSR as in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and similar races.

Apart from the 24 Hours, the Rundstrecken Challenge Nürburgring (RCN/CHC) and the constancy examinations are related smaller events dedicated to non-professionals.

Member organisations
ADAC-Westfalen e.V.
Renngemeinschaft Düren e.V. DMV
AC Altkreis Schwelm e.V. im ADAC
MSC Adenau e.V. im ADAC
Dortmunder MC e.V. im ADAC
Rheydter Club für Motorsport e.V. DMV
MSC Ruhr-Blitz Bochum e.V. im ADAC
MSC Sinzig e.V. im ADAC
AC Monheim e.V. DMV
MSC Münster e.V. DMV

In case of there is nothing other noted all terms are copyright Wikipedia .

overview

Linktip:

BF Goodrich Veranstaltergemeinschaft Nürburgrung:
www.vln.de (German language)

wide VLN data base written by Michael Bock:
www.ringpics.info/index.php?page=datenbank (German language)