Second overall place and two class victories for BLACK FALCON at the Nürburgring 2019 24 Hour Race

Hits: 3545

24h-Race Nürburgring - Race Report

BLACK FALCON achieved second place overall at the 47th edition of the 24h race at the Nürburgring. Maximilian Buhk (DE), Hubert Haupt (DE), Thomas Jäger (DE) and Luca Stolz (DE) finished third overall with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 in an action-packed race, but the result was subsequently corrected by the organising ADAC in favour of BLACK FALCON with the disqualification of the Porsche starting number 911, which had been second up to then. In the SP10 class, Marek Böckmann (DE), Yannick Mettler (CH), Tobias Müller (DE) and Tristan Viidas (EST) won with the Mercedes-AMG GT4 #70. The quartet fought an exciting duel for the class lead for almost the entire duration of the race. BLACK FALCON even celebrated a double victory in the V6 class production cars: Alexander Akimenkov (RU), Ronny Lethmate (DE), Carlos Rivas (LU) and Vasilii Selivanov (RU) won with the Porsche 991 Carrera #133, their team mates Christoph Hoffmann (DE), Carsten Palluth (DE), Tobias Wahl (DE) and Robert Woodside (GB) crossed the finish line in an identical car with the #132 in second place. In the SP7 class Peter Ludwig (US), Maik Rosenberg (DE), "Takis" (CH) and Dennis Trebing (US) finished third. The AMG GT4 #46 by Stefan Karg (DE), Mustafa Mehmet Kaya (TR), Reinhold Renger (DE) and Mike Stursberg (DE) finished sixth in the SP8T after a collision through no fault of their own. The two Mercedes-AMG GT3 with start numbers 2 and 6 were eliminated prematurely due to accidents.

Eventful race and happy end for the Mercedes-AMG Team BLACK FALCON
The BLACK FALCON GT3 department sent three factory-supported Mercedes-AMG GT3s to the race. Maro Engel (DE) at the wheel of the orange-coloured AM-Solutions-AMG with start number 2 clinched pole position in the top qualifying session on Friday evening for himself and his driver colleagues Adam Christodoulou (GB), Manuel Metzger (DE) and Dirk Müller (DE) with a lap time of 8:10.910 minutes. After a strong start, the #2 set the pace at the top in the first 8 hours of the race and led the race almost continuously. A collision destroyed all title dreams after dark, the AMG was parked in the pits with a broken steering. Patrick Assenheimer (DE), Yelmer Buurman (NL), Nico Bastian (DE) and Gabriele Piana (IT) started from sixth position with the AMG GT3 #6 and were in the top 10 throughout the race. When several GT3 cars at the top of the field dropped out on Sunday morning, they even fought for the overall victory for a short time, before an accident two hours before the end of the race ended all victory dreams as well. The third AMG GT3 of Maximilian Buhk, Hubert Haupt, Thomas Jäger and Luca Stolz started from grid position eight. The four-man team completed a flawless race and fought their way forward hour by hour, especially in the second half of the race. In the end, starting number 3 crossed the finish line to third place overall. Afterwards, the three first-placed cars were subjected to a performance test by the organiser ADAC. The cars of BLACK FALCON and the first-placed PHOENIX team completed the measurement without any objections, while the second-placed Porsche with the starting number 911 of the MANTHEY-RACING team did not meet the regulations. As a result, the car was officially taken out of the classification on Saturday, 6 July 2019.

Hattrick and Top-20 in the overall classification for the AMG GT4 of the BLACK FALCON Team IDENTICA
In the SP10 class for GT4 vehicles, Marek Böckmann, Yannick Mettler, Tobias Müller and Tristan Viidas experienced an exciting race in the fight for class victory. After a mixed qualifying session, the BLACK FALCON Team IDENTICA team only started from rank six in the class but took the class lead before nightfall. During the race an intensive duel developed with the later second placed BMW M4, which suffered a damaged wheel bearing as a result of the hard driving style. The BLACK FALCON pilots, on the other hand, drove in a much more material-friendly manner and were finally able to gain the decisive advantage on Sunday morning. At the end of a sparkling clean race there was an excellent 17th place in the overall classification as well as the class victory to book, for BLACK FALCON it was already the third class victory in a row after 2017 and 2018 in the prestigious class SP10 of GT4 vehicles.

Double victory and fifth consecutive class victory for BLACK FALCON Team TEXTAR
Alexander Akimenkov, Ronny Lethmate, Carlos Rivas and Vasilii Selivanov clinched the fifth consecutive class victory in the V6 production cars for the BLACK FALCON Team TEXTAR at the Nürburgring 24-hour race with the Porsche 991 Carrera #133. Since 2015, BLACK FALCON has been unbeaten in the fastest production car class. For the first time in 2019, the team even managed a double victory: Christoph Hoffmann, Carsten Palluth, Tobias Wahl and Robert Woodside took second place in the sister car #132, ensuring a perfect team result. Already in qualifying the pilots provided an excellent starting position with pole position and third on the grid. Thanks to the great performance of the drivers and the team, the proven 911s ran absolutely smoothly and dominated the race at will from as early as the evening hours.

Class podium for the BLACK FALCON Team TEXTAR "wide body" Porsche
Peter Ludwig, Maik Rosenberg, "Takis" and Dennis Trebing took part in the 24h race in the Porsche 991 GT3 Cup MR II in the strongly occupied SP7 class. The spectacularly appearing TEXTAR "Breitbau" started the race from fifth place and drove up to second during the first hours of the race. This position was only lost when a problem with the rear wheel suspension caused the team to throw back far in the morning hours. Thanks to good lap times the quartet fought their way back to third position. Beside the third place in the class Ludwig, Rosenberg, Takis and Trebing secured themselves a Top-25 result in the overall classification.

Accident through no fault of their own prevents top result for BLACK FALCON Team KNUFFI
For Stefan Karg, Mustafa Mehmet Kaya, Reinhold Renger and Mike Stursberg the 24h race was a roller coaster of emotions. After a strong performance in qualifying, the quartet was on pole position in the SP8T class with the KNUFFI-AMG GT4. The first few hours went without a hitch and the team consolidated their lead with every lap, before the AMG was hit by another vehicle through no fault of their own shortly before nightfall and was taken out of the race due to a broken suspension. After a repair lasting more than three hours, the pit crew sent the car back to the track. The rest of the race went without any incidents, so that after 24 hours the starting number 46 still reached 6th position in the class and 71st overall out of 155 cars started.

Voices on the race
Sean Paul Breslin (Team Principal Mercedes-AMG Team BLACK FALCON): "We knew from the beginning that the race would be very challenging again this year. The retirement of the #2 and #6 was of course very frustrating, especially because both cars had very good chances for a podium result or even overall victory at the time. Nevertheless, we can be satisfied with the result - we were on the pole position at the world's toughest 24-hour race and again on the podium at the finish. In addition, we clinched the best result of all Mercedes-AMG cars at the 24-hour Nürburgring for the seventh time in a row".

Alexander Böhm (Managing Director BLACK FALCON GmbH & Co. KG): "I'm extremely satisfied with the result and the performance of our team both on and off the race track. We were very competitive right from the start both in the overall standings and in the four other classes in which we competed in 2019. As in the last five years, we were able to win two classes at the Nürburgring 24h race in 2019 - this was anything but a matter of course, especially due to the extremely high drop-out rate. Our drivers as well as the pit crew did an excellent job!

Our event team also deserves great praise: During the 24-hour week we fed, informed and entertained over 400 guests and employees at five different locations.

Last but not least, we would like to thank our partners from the industry who made our successful appearance at this major international event possible in the first place."