The Radical Cup Europe called at the Nürburgring for the fourth of five rounds in its debut 2026 season on July 3-5, marking the highly anticipate return of factory-backed Radical racing to the continent.
Report: Bachmann wins and Littlewood shines in action-packed Nürburgring thriller
Utilising the Grand Prix Circuit for the weekend’s racing and supporting the Creventic 12 Hours of Nürburgring, the crews had two full days of testing available before the event proper got underway. After a one-hour practice session, the crews would face a pair of 20-minute qualifying sessions, which would determine the starting order for the two 50-minute races.
Class SR10 is for the turbocharged Radical SR10, with Class SR3 for the popular Radical SR3 XX and XXR models. The hotly contested Fangio Class is for drivers aged over 50 years.
Warm and sunny conditions greeted the field for the first of the two 20-minute qualifying sessions, each of which would set the starting order for the weekend’s two races.
The layout used skips the tight final chicane designed to slow Formula 1 cars down, instead opting for a fast and flowing left-right flick onto the famous main straight.
RJ Motorsport’s Lowen Stephens struck first, trading times with teammate Brian Huang, who was four-tenths off Stephen’s pace. But on his third tour RSR’s Marcus Littlewood set the early benchmark.
Littlewood had the clear advantage ahead, but the fight for second developed into an intense battle between Radical Norway’s Erlend Juan Olsen, RSR’s Paul Denning, and STEP Motorsport’s Morten Strømstead.
Radical Nederland’s Mitchell van Dijk traded times with Littlewood, the pair picking up green sectors aplenty. Littlewood was the first to dip below the 2-minute mark with a 1:59.507, van Dijk responded, but Littlewood dug deep and found a half-second advantage.
Denning finished a very strong third outright and first in the Fangio Class, but ahead, Littlewood was in a class of his own, taking pole position with a 1:58.949 – the only driver to get into the 58s.
Q2 would set the grid for Sunday’s Race 2. Littlewood opted to stay on the same tyres as Q1, keeping a fresh set ready for the race.
Van Dijk struck first, hovering over 2-minutes but unable to dip below. Denning and Olsen were fast again, but Littlewood had them covered, striking with a 1:59.072.
Littlewood managed traffic with consolidation laps, letting the car and tyres cool down. Van Dijk snatched second with a 1:59.765, Stephens hovered just above the threshold in third.
Radical Sweden’s Filip Svensson, in the turbocharged Radical SR10, moved up through the field to third, with an imperfect lap. Olsen and Sebastian Schou were pushing and had laps deleted for exceeding track limits. Svensson showed impressive sector speed in the SR10 and started his final lap on a flyer but out braked himself into T1, throwing his last chance away.
Nobody had managed to improve on Littlewood’s 1:59.072, earning the Brit his second pole position of the weekend.
The first race of the weekend went green under bright blue skies but was marred by a Turn 1 incident that would take out the first five cars.
It began in breathtaking fashion, with Littlewood, van Dijk, Denning, Stephens and Olsen running five wide down the straight and through the slight-right kink leading to T1. It looked as if Littlewood had the edge by the narrowest of margins, until RJ Motorsport’s Jahid Fazal-Karim made a bold inside lunge for first from his P7 starting position.
The Nürburgring’s narrowing first corner is a known pinch point; combined with little off-line grip and a bump that allegedly dislodged Fazal-Karim’s foot from the brake pedal, the move was doomed to fail. There was no way the Radical was ever going to stop in time, with Fazal-Karim hitting a turning Denning, who then ricocheted into Littlewood, van Dijk, and Stephens.
Thankfully there were no injuries, but the first two rows of the grid were out, the winners being those far enough back to not be caught in the collateral damage. The red flag was brought out as the stricken SR3s were retrieved from the gravel trap. It was an interesting situation for the championship – a rare DNF from Littlewood meant a lost opportunity to score points and extend his championship lead, but with his main title contenders also taken out, nobody was able to capitalise on his bad luck.
The race restarted under the Safety Car with 40-minutes remaining on the clock, impressively losing only five minutes to the drama.
RSR’s John Macleod found himself leading at the restart, an incredible situation given his P11 starting position. He led Olsen and RJ Motorsport’s Pascal Bachmann at the restart, all sniffing the chance of an outright race win.
Fighting hard, Olsen eventually found a way past Macleod before the Dunlop Curve, going around the outside and using all of the exit kerb to make the move stick.
Radical Nederland’s Alain Berg had caught the front pack, engaging in a gentlemanly fight which allowed Macleod some breathing space ahead, until a drive-through penalty for a formation lap infringement put paid to his race.
Olsen found clean air, putting some 3-seconds per lap between himself and the quarrelling pack behind.
Olsen needed to push – the success penalty from results at previous rounds meant he would be stationary for 75 seconds during his mandatory pit stop, as opposed to Macleod’s 25 seconds.
After the round of pit stops, Bachmann emerged as the race leader with a slender 4.7 second advantage over Macleod. Olsen was chasing them both down, 13 seconds from the race lead. It was coming down to the wire – Bachmann, Macleod, Olsen, and RJ Motorsport’s Brian Huang all had a realistic chance of winning this race with just minutes to go.
Olsen caught Macleod with two laps remaining, and while Olsen was clearly faster, Macleod was defending keenly and Olsen just couldn’t get through, no matter what he tried.
Their fight played into Bachmann’s hands, not only giving him breathing space but keeping Huang bunched behind, too.
Macleod mounted the defence of his life, covering the inside line on the final corner and hanging on for second place by just two-tenths of a second.
Bachmann converted his good fortune into the outright race win, with the Swiss driver taking a popular victory the day after the Swiss football team’s win over Algeria in the FIFA World Cup. His first place also meant he won the Fangio Class for drivers aged over 50, earning him a rare double victory.
With yesterday’s damage repaired, the full field lined up for Sunday morning’s Race 2. Gone was the sunshine, with cooler air temperatures, clouds, and a spot of rain. Dark skies threatened a wet race, making strategy calls of crucial importance.
Littlewood and van Dijk would go head-to-head in the battle we were denied the previous day, and with the Radical Sweden SR10 of Peter Gustagson and Filip Svensson starting from the second row after a mechanical retirement the previous day, the crowds were in for a show.
Littlewood made a poor start and was swamped off the line, as Svensson used the straight-line power of the SR10 to pull away. This time it was four-wide into T1 – Olsen made the move down the inside, with Littlewood defending and running wide. There was contact but everyone emerged, with Denning ahead of the main pack.
STEP Motorsport’s Sebastian Schou was now in the mix, up to second in the SR3 Class, with Svensson’s SR10 driving away with the outright race lead.
On lap two Schou made a move on Denning for the SR3 race lead, but Denning wasn’t relenting easily, and the pair traded places over the following laps. Littlewood ran fifth. The clouds had dispersed, the sun was shining brightly, and the anticipated rain was nowhere to be seen.
Littlewood had a task and set himself to it, making his way through the field, now on Olsen’s tail. He striked down the inside at the Dunlop Curve, but Olsen had the inside through the Schumacher Esses, and kept the place.
Littlewood tried again around the outside of the Michelin Curve, Olsen hung on around the outside at Bit-Kurve, with van Dijk now joining the party at Hatzenbects-Bogen.
The trio went three-wide over the start line, Littlewood with the advantage. Van Dijk took Olsen around the outside through the Mercedes Arena, giving Littlewood valuable breathing space which he used to good effect. Svensson was 4.8-seconds up the road in the SR10, pulling away at over a second per lap.
Littlewood was now catching his RSR teammate Denning for second place, with Schou ahead. Would Denning do him any favours?
No was the answer, but Littlewood got him anyway at Veedol, and quickly put air between them. Denning spun in the Mercedes Arena, ceding fourth to van Dijk.
Fazal-Karim spun too – with wet weather forecast but sunshine now showing, many cars had been prepared for wet running and were ill-equipped to deal with the warm conditions and rising track temperatures.
At lap 9 Littlewood caught Schou, who was not going to give the place easily. From the Mercedes Arena onwards the pair diced side-by-side for the better part of a lap, in an absolute first-class display of clean and hard racing. The pair traded brave moves and showed each other respect, but by the Schumacher Curves, Littlewood had the run and made the move stick. Now with clean air, Littlewood used his extra pace to put some distance between himself and Schou.
He’d need it – Littlewood had a mammoth 80 second success penalty to serve during the pit stop, compared to Schou’s 60 seconds.
Stephens and Huang were the first to pit, with the top six runners staying out until the very last moment. Schou handed the SR3 to teammate Strømsted, who rejoined with the SR3 race lead ahead of van Dijk, Littlewood 12 seconds back.
Van Dijk was pushing hard – he could hopefully dispatch Strømsted, but would he have the pace to hold off Littlewood for the win? The field caught the SR10 of gentleman driver Gustafson, who had taken over from Svensson in the pit stop. Ever the gentleman, he did not make life hard for the fighting SR3s
Littlewood caught up, taking van Dijk with a clean move in the Mercedes Arena. He was now four seconds from Strømsted and catching at just over a second a lap, but Strømsted made a mistake in the arena and spun, letting Littlewood through and rejoining ahead of van Dijk.
In the closing stages Stephens, Denning and van Dijk engaged in a three way battle, with Denning attempting a brave move on Stephens at Turn 1 and making it stick.
Emboldened, Denning tried the move again the next lap on van Dijk but made the lightest of contact to the rear of the Dutchman’s SR3 on the corner exit. It was a gentle kiss but enough to unsettle the unloaded inside corner, sending van Dijk into a slide that he couldn’t quite hold. He spun, rejoining in P5.
Against everything thrown at him, Littlewood took the race win, putting on a masterclass of Radical racing. Under intense pressure, Strømsted held second place over the finish line from a hard-charging Lowen Stephens. Denning was issued a 10-second penalty for his move at Turn 1, but with van Dijk 13-seconds behind, it did not alter the result, and Denning won the Fangio Class.
Littlewood departs Germany as the clear championship leader, with a 37-point lead over Schou/Strømsted. Olsen is a further 19-points behind, with the consistent John Macleod leading the Fangio Class championship.
The Radical Cup Europe resumes at Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya in September, sharing track space with the prestigious Radical World Finals from September 16-19.