Black Falcon meets VLN 2016 – from the B permit Cayman to the professional AMG GT3!

Seven vehicles from two manufacturers in five classes – that’s Black Falcon’s ambitious line-up for a new and promising season in the VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring. In 2016, the racing team from Meuspath is again providing its customers with a full range of sports cars: from the low-cost, yet cutting-edge Porsche Cayman in the V5 class to the new top model from Mercedes, the AMG GT3. Once again, “customer sports at the highest level” is Black Falcon’s motto in the 2016 season too!

Under the team name “Black Falcon Team TMD Friction” all ten races in the VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring will see at least five racing cars driven by racing amateurs vying for class victories and championships. Add to that two further AMG GT3s, driven by Nordschleife professionals, who will participate in selected VLN races under the name of “AMG Team Black Falcon”.

In the age of license courses and Nordschleife permits, the Porsche Cayman with the start number 448 in the V5 class is the basis for all VLN newcomers and shooting stars who have a B permit. During the first round of the VLN 2016, Christian Bjørn-Hansen, Carsten Palluth and Runar Vatne will be hoping to gain more experience with this vehicle for the Nordschleife A permit, in order to soon begin racing the new Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport at the VLN 2. A further VLN production car, the reliably fast Porsche 991 Carrera, with start number 394 and driven by Aurel Schoeller and Miguel Toril, will begin the season with the goal of winning the class in the highly competitive V6 class up to 3.5 l displacement. Last year’s famous and highly successful Porsche 997 CUP with the start number 600 will again compete in the VLN Group H. In 2016, the regular drivers Jürgen Bleul and Carsten Knechtges will be supported for the first time by “Takis”, the experienced Nordschleife expert, who is a valuable addition to the team.

As the spearhead of the Porsche cars, Black Falcon will be racing the Porsche “991 CUP BF”, the vehicle that won the VLN 10/2015. In 2015, this car got onto the overall podium of the VLN twice and provided the biggest surprise of recent years with the overall victory in the 10th race. The pair of drivers for the vehicle known to insiders as “white rocket” again looks particularly promising: two extremely fast youngsters – VLN champion 2011, Tim Scheerbarth, and 2015 rookie champion in the Porsche Carrera Cup, Alex Toril – will be taking turns behind the wheel of the customer sports rocket from Black Falcon that will be starting in the SP7 class.

The pinnacle of the Black Falcon customer sports programme at the Nordschleife in 2016 will consist of Abdulaziz Al Faisal and "Gerwin", who will be supported by Dutchman Indy Dontje, driving the AMG GT3 at all ten VLN races 2016 with the start number 7. "“I am very happy that in 2016 two of our most successful customers will be racing the entire VLN season in the same vehicle"“, explains Black Falcon Team GT boss Sean Paul Breslin. “Apart from a visible reinforcement of our dedication with the AMG brand, this vehicle also proves our commitment to customer sports in the VLN long distance championship. In combination with the Porsche faction and our two professional AMG GT3s, this is by far the strongest squad that Black Falcon has had at the VLN in its entire 10-year history!“

As a complement to the customer sports programme, two real professional crews will also begin next Saturday: Bernd Schneider, Adam Christodoulou, Maro Engel and Manuel Metzger (AMG GT3 start number 6) as well as Hubert Haupt, Nico Bastian, Yelmer Buurman and Dirk Müller (AMG GT3 start number 9). Team and drivers are full of anticipation and raring to go like never before!