2017 VLN Endurance Championship Round 1 - Results

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Team BLACK FALCON brought home seven of its eight cars in the opening round of the 2017 VLN series, which featured a massive 187 entries. After four hours of racing and just a single retirement, the team’s results included two class podiums and important points finishes that will all count as the year progresses.

BLACK FALCON Team TMD Friction’s Porsches battled strong opposition across their classes to bring home a set of excellent finishes. The team have always excelled in the SP7 class, and a podium was a great way for the #57 car to start the year. The 991 GT3 Cup’s drivers, Jürgen Bleul (Germany), “Takis” (Switzerland) and Carsten Knechtges (Germany) took third in class at the flag, 35th overall. The two Porsche Cayman GT4’s in SP10 also delivered during the race: Mehmet Kaya (Turkey) and Gabriele Piana (Germany) in #171 claimed an excellent second in class and 41st overall, but despite a strong start their sister car #172, driven by Stefan Karg (Germany), Aurel Schoeller (Germany) and Alexander Toril (Spain) was forced to retire after 20 laps and lost the possibility of a points finish. Fourth position in V6 was the result for Saud Al Faisal (Saudi Arabia) and Thomas Bolz (Germany) in the #394 Porsche 991 Carrera, whilst Axel König (Germany), Fidel Lieb (Germany) and Brett Sandberg (USA) brought the #448 Porsche Cayman home seventh in the V5 class. A trio of Mercedes-AMG GT3s headed up Team BLACK FALCON’s tilt at overall victory, up against a massive field of similar GT3-specification opposition that was 33 strong in total. The highest finisher was the team’s full-season entry, #7 in its spectacular metallic-blue wrap, which took an appropriate seventh overall. Abdulaziz Al Faisal (Saudi Arabia), Hubert Haupt (Germany), DTM star Dani Juncadella (Spain) and the up-and-coming Luca Stolz (Germany) put in a great performance, gaining 12 places during the race and taking the honour of being the highest-placed Mercedes as the race came to a conclusion. The Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon #6 crew of Maro Engel (Germany), Adam Christodoulou (United Kingdom), Manuel Metzger (Germany) and Yelmer Buurman (Netherlands) finished just two places behind in ninth. Dirk Müller (Germany), Jan Seyffarth (Germany) and Thomas Jäger (Germany) brought the Bilstein-liveried Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon #9 Mercedes across the line in 13th overall, completing a clean finish for all three of the team’s GT3 cars.

The 90-minute Qualifying session early on race-day morning had been more frantic than normal, being the first chance of the year for many drivers to get out in race conditions. 184 cars were out for qualifying, and with driver changes that meant almost 600 drivers trying to get out on track during the session: there was no respite from traffic. Nonetheless, Team BLACK FALCON’s eight cars put in solid times. The three Mercedes, #6, #7 and #9, would line up 15th, 19th and 26th respectively, all within respectable distance of the overall pole position and knowing there was a four-hour race ahead to make up places – they’d all achieve that goal. Mustafa and Gabriele were delighted to take class pole in SP10, setting a time in their Cayman GT4 that was only just short of the SP7 and Cup 2 991 Porsches ahead. The race took place in unusually good conditions, with a warm spring sun beaming down over the Eifel Mountains. The massed rolling start was taken in waves, the fastest SP9 cars leading the way as their first wave of almost 50 cars headed into the first turn. All the Team BLACK FALCON Mercedes made it through unscathed, jostling for position before heading out onto the Nordschleife for their first racing laps of 2017. A couple of minutes behind, the remaining Porsches came through to take their start, and four hours of hard, elbows-out racing got underway. As ever, the Team BLACK FALCON pit crew performed flawlessly during the event, helping cycle the drivers through their change-overs as quickly as possible and warning the drivers of the many issues that occurred during the race. With so many cars and such a narrow track to deal with, attrition during a VLN race is always high: 40 cars dropped out during the race, victims of accidents, punctures and car failures, again highlighting the level of effort required by drivers and mechanics alike just to get their cars to the finish. With the first 700km of racing in the VLN now under their belt, Team BLACK FALCON will be looking to build on the results of the opening race, knowing there’s always room for improvement and always striving for the best possible result. The next race is in just two weeks time: before you know it the mechanics and drivers of Team BLACK FALCON will be back in the Nürburgring pitlane for the second race of the year. You can support Team BLACK FALCON across all social media platforms: follow the team via twitter.com/TeamBlackFalcon, facebook.com/teamblackfalcon/ and instagram.com/teamblackfalcon to get live action updates direct from the tracks, as well as fantastic images of the team in action. RACE DATES
VLN 2017
VLN2: 08 April (42. DMV 4-Stunden-Rennen)
VLN3: 24 June (59. ADAC ACAS H&R-Cup)
VLN4: 08 July (47. Adenauer ADAC Worldpeace Trophy)
VLN5: 19 August (ROWE 6 Hour ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen)
VLN6: 02 September (40. RCM DMV Grenzlandrennen)
VLN7: 23 September (57. ADAC Reinoldus-Langstreckenrennen)
VLN8: 07 October (49. ADAC Barbarossapreis)
VLN9: 21 October (42. DMV Münsterlandpokal) Nürburgring 24 Hours
ADAC 6-Hour Qualifying Race: 22-23 April
ADAC Zurich 24-Hour Race: 25-28 May

Image source: Akl Yazbeck / Sportscode Images