Gamota takes NLS8 pole as BMW locks out the Nurburgring front row
David Jahn put the number 23 Gamota Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO on pole for the eighth round of the Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie with a 7:53.343, and he did it in the first half of a qualifying session that never really got going again afterwards.
It is Gamota’s second pole of the season for a team that arrived in the GT3 class without the history of the Nordschleife establishment, and it put a second BMW alongside it on the front row.
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Jahn banked his lap early and the code 60s did the rest
Jahn found the time on his second flying lap. “The second lap felt really good,” he said afterwards, and by the time the rest of the GT3 field was ready to answer, the session had started collecting code 60 zones.
Those neutralisations are the great leveller of Nordschleife qualifying. A car caught by one loses the lap, and with several of them spread through the second half of the session nobody found a clear run at the 7:53 mark.
Gamota Racing has done this before this year. The same operation took pole for the qualifying race ahead of the 24 Hours in April, which makes this the second time in 2026 that a team without a long Eifel pedigree has beaten the works-backed entries to the top of the timing screen.
BMW locked out the front row
Jordan Pepper pushed the number 77 Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO into second, which gives BMW both cars on the front row for the start of the four-hour race. Pepper shares that car with Jens Klingmann and Ugo de Wilde.
Two different BMW customer teams filling the first row says something about where the M4 GT3 EVO is on this circuit at this point in the season. It also sets up exactly the kind of intra-brand fight that decides races over four hours rather than over one lap.
Ford and Audi head the chase
Behind the BMWs, Vincent Kolb and Frank Stippler put the number 64 Haupt Racing Team Ford Mustang GT3 third, with the number 22 Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II fourth in the hands of Florian Spengler, Nico Hantke and Christer Joens.
| Pos | Car | Team and car | Drivers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 23 | Gamota Racing, BMW M4 GT3 EVO | Antal Zsigo, Moritz Kranz, David Jahn |
| 2 | 77 | Schubert Motorsport, BMW M4 GT3 EVO | Jens Klingmann, Jordan Pepper, Ugo de Wilde |
| 3 | 64 | Haupt Racing Team, Ford Mustang GT3 | Vincent Kolb, Frank Stippler |
| 4 | 22 | Car Collection Motorsport, Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II | Florian Spengler, Nico Hantke, Christer Joens |
| 5 | 75 | Max Kruse Racing, Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II | Marcel Fugel, Dominik Fugel, Benjamin Leuchter |
Top five after NLS8 qualifying. Only two lap times have been published so far: 7:53.343 for the pole and 7:57.775 for the Max Kruse Racing Audi.
Four and a half seconds covers the top five on the times we have, which on a 25-kilometre lap is close enough that strategy, traffic and code 60 luck will matter more than raw pace.
The lead has already changed hands
The race is under way, and the front row has already reshuffled. Our reporter at the circuit has the number 77 Schubert BMW ahead of the pole-sitting number 23, which means Gamota lost the position it had worked all morning to earn inside the opening phase.
That is the Nordschleife doing what it always does to a one-lap advantage. Four hours is a long time to defend anything here, and the first stint on a 136-car grid is mostly an exercise in getting through the slower classes without losing time or bodywork.
Our full entry list for the race is here: the NLS8 entry list in full.
Our call: pole here is worth less than it looks
Gamota’s lap was the standout piece of driving of the morning, and the team deserves the headline. But a Nordschleife pole buys you clean air into the first corner and very little after that.
What matters over four hours is the second and third stints, when the GT3 cars are picking their way through traffic and every code 60 rewrites the gaps. The team that manages that best usually wins, and it is rarely the team that was quickest on a single empty lap.
That the front row is an all-BMW affair from two separate customer teams makes it more interesting, not less. Neither has a manufacturer telling them to hold station.
What to watch over four hours
Watch the code 60 phases. They are the single biggest variable in an NLS race and they have already shaped qualifying.
Watch the Haupt Racing Ford. Kolb and Stippler are running a two-driver line-up against three-driver crews, which changes the stint pattern.
Watch what Gamota does after losing the lead. A team that can answer back in the second hour is a team that belongs at the front, and that is the question this result really asks.
We are at the Nurburgring all weekend for NLS8 and NLS9. Follow the coverage on the RNT-Motorsports live blog.
