After a certain fiery accident on a Saturday night public session earlier this month between a 992 GT3RS and a British M2 (July 2025)*, I’ve been forced to watch and read some rather painful opinions on Nürburgring overtaking from so-called experts and influencers.
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In Nürburgring Nordschleife public sessions ( TF = touristenfahrten):
- The Nordschleife is a one-way street
- Traffic must stay right
- Overtaking must be done on the left
- The rules of the public road apply to this private road
Don’t believe me? The rules are quite simple and they’re all online. Section 2.2.
HOW DO I KNOW THIS?
I’ve been in court TWICE for accidents revolving around this very theme, and I’ve reported on dozens more accidents besides my own. The rules of touristenfahrten describe the track as having a left and ride side, and the rules say you drive on the right, unless you’re overtaking.
So, if you’re on the RIGHT hand side, and somebody is coming past on the LEFT, you CANNOT ‘take your line’, ‘defend your apex’, or do any of the dumbass things I’ve seen certain influencers spouting off about this week. THE RACING LINE DOES NOT EXIST IN PUBLIC SESSIONS.
For nearly 20 years my briefing said the same thing. There’s no racing line when you’re in traffic on a public session.
BUT! Does that mean that any old Porsche can slip it up the inside at 260kmh and then ask you to pay for his new car when you hit him?
ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Because, just like on the autobahn, there is a responsibility for EVERY driver to both avoid any possible accidents, and therefore to travel no faster than what is safe.
The 130kmh Rule
Precedent for ‘what is safe’ is currently accepted as a speed not exceeding 130kmh in ideal driving conditions.
So, picture this. Yours truly is ‘cruising’ up Kesselchen at around 200kmh (not 240, just 200), and the road user ahead of me, doing 70kmh, looks in the mirror, then panics, and dives left with no time left for me to avoid him. There is clear video footage of him driving correctly, right until the moment of no-return, when he does the wrong thing. Bang.
In that situation, the insurance companies, guided by a judge, settled on a 70/30 split in our favour, as I was going faster than 130kmh, and couldn’t react in time to avoid the accident.
About 6 years and 10,000 laps later, I’m in court again. But instead of me rear-ending some line-hogging tourist (lol), I’ve been rear-ended myself by a car I just overtook, in the rear quarter, and we’ve both spun into the barrier. Because the culprit gave misleading details, and was driving a racecar with his tow-car plates bolted on (guess the nationality), we actually had to defend against the uninsured drivers fund of Germany (which takes the place of the insurance company, then pursues the driver separately for whatever they had to pay out). The decision in the end? Still only 80/20 in my favour, even though I was rear-ended, with video proof!
Why? Because I had just overtaken him, and I was doing so while at a speed greater than 130kmh.
CONFUSED MUCH?
Touristenfahrten, can you believe, translates to Tourists Driving. When I see posts on reddit or facebook groups saying “I’m driving a trackday on the Nordschleife this Sunday,” a piece of my soul crumbles and dies. There’s like two trackdays on a weekend the whole season, you’re almost certainly going to be driving the track during TOURISTENFAHRTEN.
Public driving means JUST that. The track is open to the public, and for the duration of the session it is ‘adopted’ by the laws of the land, and becomes a public road.
The actual legal mechanism of this is the sign saying “STVO” applies as you enter the carpark. This is the same as driving in a supermarket carpark, or crossing a privately owned toll-bridge.
That means your car needs to be registered, you need to be licensed, both need to be insured, and OVERTAKING IS TO BE DONE LEGALLY
Because it’s adopted as a public road during these special sessions, technically, all accidents should involve the Polizei, insurance companies, judges and lawyers. Many don’t, especially if none of the parties involved are German, or even insured.
BUT WHAT ABOUT TRACKDAYS AND RACING?
That’s a whole different kettle of fish. For simplicity, our own Circuit-Days BTG events included, many events also run an ‘overtaking only on the left’ rule, but we also add ‘with consent’.
But I’m not going to try and explain that all here. This was supposed to be a quick blog, and it’s already lunchtime. Ciao!
*Because the Nürburgring media department will probably disown me, I won’t be linking any of the leaked photos or videos, as showing crashes from public sessions is an offence punishable by death** under their
**the death of your media license