On this day in 1925 construction on the Nürburgring racing circuit in Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany begins. The first races would take place on June 18, 1927 for motorcycles with sidecars, which Toni Ulmen won on an English 350 cc Velocette. Rudolf Caracciola took the checkers at the first automobile race, the following day. He drove a Mercedes Compressor to victory in the 5000 cc class.
Today, the motorsports complex features a Grand Prix track built in 1984 and has a crowd capacity of more than 150,000 people. The track’s biggest weekend of the year is the Nürburgring 24 Hours, which is generally held in mid-May. The event features upwards of 220 cars, ranging from those with as little as 100 hp to high output factory racers built by BMW, Opel, Audi, Mercedes-Benz and many other competitors from around the globe. There is often more than 700 drivers in total, both amateurs and professionals, with around 290,000 spectators cheering them on over the course of the race.
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