BMW announces 2016 Nurburgring 24 Hours driver line-ups

Edwards, who has been part of the Rahal GT Le Mans team in the USA since 2013, steps up from the privateer entry he raced in last year's 24 Hours on the Nurburgring-Nordschleife to drive a new BMW M6 GT3 for the Schubert team.

The 24-year-old will share the car with fellow BMW factory drivers Martin Tomczyk, Lucas Luhr and Jens Klingmann in the Nurburgring enduro on May 28/29.

Krohn, 25, will drive the second Schubert entry together with Marco Wittmann, Augusto Farfus Jr and Jorg Muller.

BMW DTM driver Tom Blomqvist has been placed with the Walkenhorst team with which Edwards raced last season for what will be his first experience of GT racing.

BMW Motorsport boss Jens Marquardt said: "The inclusion of some extremely talented young drivers gives our driver line-up the ideal mix.

"We are very confident that we can leave our mark on the Nordschleife in the centenary year of BMW."

Luhr, Farfus and Muller have moved across to Schubert from the Marc VDS squad, which had factory status at the Nurburgring last season but has now ended its car racing programmes.

Alexander Sims and Dirk Werner switch from Schubert to the replacement for Marc VDS in BMW's factory roster, Rowe Motorsport.

Sims, who is contesting the full Blancpain GT Series with Rowe, and Werner will share with Maxime Martin and new BMW factory driver Philipp Eng.

Nicky Catsburg and Markus Palttala, winners of last year's Spa 24 Hours Blancpain round with Marc VDS, will line up in the other Rowe car with Richard Westbrook and team regular Klaus Graf.

Schubert and Rowe will also undertake two races on the Nordschleife to prepare for their Nurburgring assaults: they will contest the opening round of the VLN long-distance championship on April 4 and then the qualifying race for the 24 Hours on April 17.