Championship decision in Hungary, large-scale VLN operation at Nürburgring

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Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe - Preview Event 5, Hungaroring / VLN Endurance Championship - Preview Round 6

For BLACK FALCON the first championship decision of the year is approaching. This weekend the GT3 team will compete at the Hungaroring near Budapest (HU) for the fifth and final race weekend of the Blancpain World Challenge Europe. In the team and driver standings BLACK FALCON and the driver duo Maro Engel (DE)/Luca Stolz (DE) are in second place with their #4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 with a small gap to the leaders. With two good results on Saturday and Sunday, the team and drivers can secure the championship titles by their own efforts on a course known for its demanding and narrow layout. At the same time, the sixth round of the VLN Endurance Championship will take place this weekend at the Nürburgring, with seven BLACK FALCON cars competing. After two overall victories in a row for the BLACK FALCON Team AutoArena Motorsport Patrick Assenheimer (DE) returns in the #6 Mercedes-AMG GT3. As in the VLN4 success, he shares the car with Manuel Metzger (DE), who does a double start and also drives the #57 Porsche 991 GT3 Cup MR II in the SP7 class. His teammates in the " TEXTAR-Breitbau " are Peter Ludwig (US) and "Takis" (CH). In the SP10 class Tobias Müller (DE), Tim Scheerbarth (DE) and Tristan Viidas (EE) will attack fully again after the virtual retirement at VLN 5. The driver trio of the #162 IDENTICA Mercedes-AMG GT4 has won three out of four VLN races so far and leads the championship classification in the SP10. In the sixth VLN race, a second IDENTICA AMG GT4 will be used for the first time, competing with starting number 770 as one of three AMG GT4 in the SP8T class. The brothers Dominik and Nicolas Clemm (both DE) share its wheel with the American Ace Robey. Mustafa Mehmet Kaya (TR), Gabriele Piana (IT) and Miguel Toril (ES) take turns in the #152 AMG GT4. The sister car with start number 155 will be driven by Axel König (DE), Norbert Schneider (DE) and Christoph Hoffmann (DE). Both cars (152,155) start for the BLACK FALCON Team Knuffi and will compete - for the first time - as a double pack in the famous yellow-black Knuffi design. The squad is completed by the #395 Porsche 991 Carrera, which as usual will compete in the near-series V6 class for the BLACK FALCON Team TEXTAR. This weekend the VLN regular pilots Alexander Akimenkov (RU), Ronny Lethmate (DE) and Vasilii Selivanov (RU) take up the fight for the class and classification group victory. The fast driver trio gets complemented by double starter Gabriele Piana at VLN6.

About the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe
During all race weekends of the Blancpain GT World Challenge there are two sprint races over the distance of one hour each. Prior to this, two 20-minute qualifying sessions, one for each driver, decide on the starting positions for races 1 and 2. During the races, a 10-minute time window opens at halftime for a mandatory pit stop including driver change. The results of the races, together with those of the Endurance Cup, are included in the Blancpain GT Series overall standings to determine an overall champion from sprint and endurance races.

Event Schedules (All Times CET)

Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe – Hungaroring

Friday, September 6^th
10:25 – 11:45   1^st Free Practice
15:20 – 16:40   2^nd Free Practice

Saturday, September 7^th
10:30 – 11:20   Qualifying *
15:10 – 16:10    1^st Race *

Sunday, September 8^th
13:45 – 14:45    2^nd Race *

* Livestream: https://blancpain-gt-series.com

VLN Endurance Championship - Nürburgring

Saturday, September 7^th
08:30 – 10:00   Qualifying *
12:00 – 16:00   Race *

* Livestream: https://vln.de

TV broadcasting, live streaming and social media
For all qualifying sessions and races, an extensive live streaming service including live timing is available on the official Blancpain GT Series and VLN websites, YouTube and Facebook channels. Further information about Team BLACK FALCON is available daily on the team's social media channels:

instagram.com/teamblackfalcon          facebook.com/teamblackfalcon