BMW M Motorsport and ROWE Racing pulled off an epic win at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, notching BMW’s 21st overall victory at this legendary endurance test. In front of a record crowd, the quartet of Kelvin van der Linde, Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn, and Raffaele Marciello delivered an unforgettable performance in the #98 BMW M4 GT3 EVO—capping off a wild comeback.
The weekend didn’t start easy for ROWE Racing. The M4 GT3 EVO missed out on the top qualifying session and had to launch from P17. But once the green flag dropped, Farfus was on fire—blasting into the top ten on lap one. Then came the chaos: a paddock power outage and red flag halted the race for over two hours. But van der Linde used the restart like a slingshot, rocketing from ninth to third in just two laps.
From there, it was a clinic in endurance racing. Marciello and Krohn kept the car in the podium hunt through the night, while ROWE executed flawlessly in the pits. At sunrise, the M4 GT3 was within striking distance of the leader—and three and a half hours before the checkered flag, Farfus took the lead. When the #911 Porsche got hit with a penalty, it was game on. Despite crossing the line just behind the Porsche, van der Linde and the #98 were declared victors after the Manthey EMA appeal was denied.
This was van der Linde’s third Nürburgring 24h win, but his first with BMW M. For Farfus, it ended a 15-year drought since his last win here. Marciello claimed his first 24h win with BMW, and Krohn added his name to the Nordschleife winners’ club too. BMW’s last overall win came in 2020 with the M6 GT3—also with ROWE Racing. This one? Pure redemption.
M2 Racing Steps Up with a Class Win
It wasn’t just the big dogs shining. The new BMW M2 Racing—BMW M Motorsport’s entry-level race car—dominated its class in its final endurance shakedown. The #310 car, piloted by Jens Klingmann, Charles Weerts, Ugo de Wilde, and journalist Michael Bräutigam, was untouchable in SP 3T.
All told, BMW M customer teams collected seven class wins. Highlights included the AV Racing by Black Falcon M4 GT4 EVO (#67) taking SP10, Adrenalin Motorsport scoring in both the M240i (#650) and VT2-RWD (#500) classes, rent2Drive-racing’s #700 BMW 325i grabbing its class, and RAVENOL Motorsport’s #277 318ti clinching SP3.
