The famous Nürburgring race track (or the ‘Green Hell') will file for bankruptcy, it has been confirmed. The Rhineland-Palatinate-owned track was denied a €13-million aid package, which would have secured the Nürburgring for a further six months.
A report from the German newspaper Rhein-Zeitung revealed that the operating company has debts of €413m, including a €330m Investitions und Strukturbank (ISB) loan as well as €83m in other loans.
The Nürburgring has been plagued with debt and loss-making for a number of years, most notably in 2004 when the state chose to expand the Nürburgring's complex with a €215m investment. Included in the plans were a leisure and business centre with amusement park and hotel complex, which has proven a commercial failure.
Since 2007, the German grand prix has been held at the Nürburgring biannually with the Hockenheimring. The forthcoming 2013 Nürburgring race is therefore an uncertainty.
The Nürburgring track was opened in 1927 after the 1920s ADAC Eifelrennen – which were held on public roads in the Eifel mountains – were deemed dangerous and impractical.
Nürburg mayor Reinhold Schüssler said: “The whole of Nürburg lives off the ring. Now the region itself might go down the drain."
