Successful VLN weekend for BLACK FALCON

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VLN Endurance Championship – Race Report Round 3

At the third VLN race at the Nürburgring, BLACK FALCON achieved the third place overall as well as two more top-10 results with the Mercedes-AMG GT3s.  In the SP10 class, the Meuspath team again triumphed with the AMG GT4 with further podiums with the Porsche 991 GT3 Cup MR II in the SP7 class, an AMG GT4 in the SP8T class and a Porsche 991 Carrera in the V6 class.  BLACK FALCON thus achieved a podium finish in all classes in which the team had entered the third VLN race.

The third race of the season was characterized by constantly changing weather conditions.  The start of the race took place with the onset of rain, which became heavier during the first half of the race and forced numerous cars off the track.  At the end of the race the track dried and some of the participants chose to change to slick tyres.

The Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Adam Christodoulou (Great Britain), Maro Engel (Germany), Manuel Metzger (Germany) and Dirk Müller (Germany), completed the first race in the colours of the new BLACK FALCON main sponsor AM Solutions after 24 laps on the podium with third place overall and was thus the best place AMG GT3.  Their team-mates in the BLACK FALCON Team AutoArena Motorsport AMG GT3 with start number 6, Patrick Assenheimer (Germany), Niko Bastian (Germany) and Yelmer Buurman (Netherlands), followed shortly afterwards in seventh place.  The top ten of the overall standings were completed by the second Mercedes-AMG Team BLACK FALCON AMG GT3 of Maximilian Buhk (Germany), Hubert Haupt (Germany) and Luca Stolz (Germany).  BLACK FALCON thus placed the best finishing positions for the AMG brand in the 193-strong grid.

In the SP10 class Tobias Müller (Germany), Tim Scheerbarth (Germany) and Tristan Viidas (Estonia) clinched the second victory in a row.  Start driver Scheerbarth started the race from position three and took the lead within the first laps.  After a flawless stint by Viidas and final driver Müller, the BLACK FALCON Team IDENTICA AMG GT4 was the class winner.

The Porsche 991 GT3 Cup MR II by Peter Ludwig (USA), double starter Manuel Metzger and "Takis" (Switzerland) finished third in the SP7 class.  Final driver Metzger changed to slick tyres shortly before the end and once again demonstrated the enormous potential of the "wide body" Porsche in the final laps and set the fastest time in the class.

In the SP8T class, two AMG GT4 cars once again competed.  The black-yellow BLACK FALCON Team KNUFFI AMG GT4 of Mustafa Mehmet Kaya (Turkey), Axel König (Germany) and Ace Robey (USA) did not cross the finish line after an accident caused by no fault of their own during aquaplaning conditions.  The sister car, that like the AMG GT3 #14 was on the track in the AM Solutions design for the first time, completed a flawless race.  Yannick Mettler (Switzerland), Stephan Rösler (Germany) and Mike Stursberg (Germany) took second place in the class.

In the production cars category, two BLACK FALCON Team TEXTAR Porsche 991 Carrera cars competed in the V6 class.  In the car with starting number 395, Alexander Akimenkov (Russia), Ronny Lethmate (Germany) and Vasilii Selivanov (Russia) finished on the podium again after winning race 1 with second place in the class.  The sister car (#394) of Carsten Palluth (Germany), Carlos Rivas (Germany) and Tobias Wahl (Germany) finished fourth.

BLACK FALCON will now continue at full throttle: Next weekend, the team will start the new season with four cars in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany at the Hockenheimring and at the same time compete in the first round of the Blancpain World Challenge Europe at Brands Hatch with an AMG GT3.  The next race on the Nordschleife will take place in two weeks (11.-12.05.).  BLACK FALCON will compete in the 24-hour qualifying race with various vehicles.

Further information about Team BLACK FALCON, live updates, behind-the-scenes and driver interviews are available daily on the team's social media channels:

instagram.com/teamblackfalcon   facebook.com/teamblackfalcon