🇩🇪 Daniel Mertens

Daniel Mertens is a competitive amateur racing in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie, a national multiclass endurance championship where amateurs and semi-professionals share the track with graded professionals. He races turbocharged production cars in the VT2, VT2 Front and VT2 Front 4WD classes for STENLE Marketing by Mertens Motorsport, and has also competed in the Nürburgring 24 Hours. His rating of 2,156 places him among amateur drivers with genuine racecraft; the level describes someone who competes consistently and wins races, but chiefly against the field at hand rather than across a broad spectrum of competitors.[1]

Over six seasons from 2020 to 2025, Mertens has taken 9 wins and 19 podiums from 36 starts in the Langstrecken-Serie, winning the VT2 Front 4WD championship in 2023 and again in 2024. He also took a podium finish from two starts in the Nürburgring 24 Hours, the championship's premier endurance event. His record is built on consistency; he is closely matched with Tobias Jung, a semi-professional who won the 2025 VT2 Front 4WD title, and usually finishes ahead of fellow competitive amateur Timo Beuth.[2]

Mertens has twice finished ahead of established professionals who reached the international level; he beat Jack Aitken, an FIA Platinum driver who raced in Formula 2 and DTM, and Ben Barnicoat, the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech GTDPRO champion. These remain isolated results against far stronger drivers rather than evidence of a pattern, but they mark the upper boundary of his actual opposition. His pace sits at the front of amateur racing in his classes.