Preview: Winward Racing on the Verge of Sealing Endurance Cup Crown at Green Hell

Text: Rick Kiewiet

Images: SRO

GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS heads to the Nürburgring this weekend (28-30 August) for the penultimate round of the 2026 Endurance Cup, with a 55-car field set to contest a three-hour race on the 5.1km GP-Strecke. It's the 15th time the series has visited the Eifel venue since joining the calendar in 2012, second only to Spa-Francorchamps in visit count, and it marks the first Endurance Cup outing since the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa at the end of June.

Winward closing in on the title

The #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Maro Engel, Lucas Auer and Luca Stolz arrives with a 41-point lead at the top of the Endurance Cup standings, built on a run of three straight second-place finishes to open the season. Should that margin remain above 26 points once Sunday's race is done, the trio will be champions. There's also a more straightforward route to the title: a finish of fourth or higher for the #48 car secures it outright regardless of what the opposition manages, doing so on Mercedes' home soil in the process.

A title would be a first Endurance Cup crown for Auer, while Engel and Stolz previously triumphed back in 2018 with Black Falcon. Their closest challenger on paper is the #007 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Mattia Drudi, Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim, though that trio haven't added to their tally since winning the Paul Ricard opener. Just behind them in the standings is the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Thomas Preining, Bastian Buus and Ricardo Feller, fresh off victory in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.

Silver title within reach for WRT

Team WRT's #30 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, shared by Amaury Cordeel, Ignacio Montenegro and Matisse Lismont, holds a 27-point cushion in the Silver Cup and is on course to wrap up that title with a round still to spare. Their main opposition comes from the Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Ariel Levi, Rocco Mazzola and Sebastian Ogaard, outright winners at Monza earlier in the season.

Kessel eyeing back-to-back Bronze wins

Kessel Racing's #74 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo pairing of Dustin Blattner and Dennis Marschall carries a 22-point advantage into the weekend after taking Bronze honours at Spa alongside Mathys Jaubert and Ben Tuck, with Lorenzo Patrese stepping back in for the Nürburgring round. Their closest challengers are James Kellett and Darren Leung, Bronze runners-up at Spa, who reunite with Dries Vanthoor in the #991 Paradine Competition BMW.

Gold Cup down to the wire

The tightest fight of all belongs to Gold, where just eight points separate the #58 Garage 59 McLaren of Tom Fleming, Benji Goethe and Louis Prette — currently third overall following an outright podium at Paul Ricard — from the #998 ROWE Racing BMW of Ugo de Wilde, Tim Tramnitz and Jens Klingmann, which topped the class at Spa.

A year on from ROWE's home triumph

Twelve months ago it was ROWE Racing celebrating at the Nürburgring, Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn and Raffaele Marciello converting pole into victory after a late Full Course Yellow reshuffled the order in their favour. It marked BMW's first home win in GTWC Europe and capped a strong summer for the trio, who had also won the Nürburgring 24 Hours that June. Mercedes-AMG's Auer and Engel, then paired with Matteo Cairoli rather than this year's Stolz, took second and extended their championship lead at the time — a reminder of how far the current Winward line-up has come since.

With two titles potentially wrapped up this weekend and a tight scrap for Gold honours still to play out, the Nürburgring looks set to deliver another eventful chapter before the series heads into the closing stretch of its season. Qualifying gets under way on Sunday at 09:45 local time, with lights out for the three-hour race at 15:00.