The Nürburgring Endurance Series (NLS, German: Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) is an organisation of motorsport clubs of which each hosts one event of a nine-race series held on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Participants of NLS races range from amateurs in small road legal cars with rollcages and harnesses to professional factory teams racing Group GT3 cars. The NLS series is closely associated with the 24 Hours Nürburgring, as it has similar rules (mostly), and mainly the same participants. In the calendar, several weeks around the 24h date in May/June are taken off to allow teams to prepare for the 24h, and to fix their cars afterwards. The 24h is not part of the championship anymore, though. Name The series was formerly known as VLN (German: Veranstaltergemeinschaft Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring, Association of Nürburgring Endurance Cup Organisers). The series was named "BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft (BFGLM)" from 2001 to 2009. History The VLN was founded in 1977 by several motorsport clubs, which are members of ADAC or Deutscher Motorsport Verband (DMV), in order to join forces. 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 Valvoline and later Veedol lubrication products. Due to this, both organisation and races were simply informally called "Veedol-Cup" for many years. Since the change of sponsorship and the official recognition by Deutscher Motor Sport Bund (DMSB) as the German endurance championship (German Meisterschaft) in 2001, the former Veedol Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring was the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring. The championship was renamed the NLS in 2020, however the name of the VLN organisation stays the same. Apart from the 24 Hours, the Rundstrecken Challenge Nürburgring (RCN/CHC) and GLP are related smaller events dedicated to non-professionals. Races Each VLN race is held as a "one-day event" on Saturdays only, in order to limit costs. The mandatory drivers briefing is at 07:30, practice is from 08:20 to 10:00, following a warmup lap behind safety cars, the first of three groups starts the race at 12:00, followed by the other two a few minutes later, in time before the fastest cars complete their first lap in just over 8 minutes. After parc fermé is opened and the winners are honoured, the teams can