Fantastic victory in the Pro-Am category at the Spa 24 Hours

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Team BLACK FALCON have achieved a fantastic class victory in the Pro-Am category at the Spa 24 Hours. Having fought their way to the front by the halfway point of the race, the four-strong driver crew of the #16 Mercedes-AMG GT3 controlled the class from then on, stretching away from the opposition to win by a margin of over a lap from the second-placed car after 546 laps of racing. They finished the race in an impressive 12th position overall. 

The Spa 24 Hours is the toughest race on the GT calendar – an endurance race in name, but effectively a sprint race that goes on for an entire day, the drivers racing on the edge at every corner. It attracts the absolute best teams in GT racing, and with the largest grid of GT3 cars anywhere in the world, winning at this historic race is the pinnacle of any team’s racing year. That phenomenal level of competition makes Team BLACK FALCON’s success even sweeter. Backing up the class victory, the drivers of the team’s Pro entry brought their Mercedes home in eighth position overall, having battled hard from a starting position outside the top 20 to achieve their creditable result.

Team BLACK FALCON was represented in the Pro class by the #4 Mercedes-AMG GT3, driven by Adam Christodoulou (United Kingdom), Yelmer Buurman (Netherlands) and Luca Stolz (Germany). The team entered a trio of Mercedes in the Pro-Am class for mixed professional and gentleman driver squads. In #16, regular partners Oliver Morley (United Kingdom) and Miguel Toril (Spain) were joined by Maximilian Goetz (Germany) and GP3 race winner Marvin Kirchhoefer (Germany). Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands) bolstered the regular all-American crew of the #15 entry, racing alongside Dore Chaponick (USA), Scott Heckert (USA) and Brett Sandberg (USA). The third car was #18, driven by Abdulaziz Turki Al Faisal (Saudi Arabia), Hubert Haupt (Germany), Gabriele Piana (Italy) and Renger Van Der Zande (Netherlands).

63 GT3s filed out onto track for the opening Free Practice session on Thursday, demonstrating just how busy the famous Spa circuit would be during the race itself. Times for the Team BLACK FALCON cars through this and the Pre-Qualifying session that followed were solid as the crews dialed themselves in, building up to the all-important two-part qualifying that evening. Initially, times began to improve with the track rubbering in: #4 was up to 18th quickest, breaking the 2m20s lap-time barrier, with the Pro-Am cars also fully seconds quicker than they’d managed in previous sessions. However, spots of rain began to fall just as the track seemed to be at its fastest, and the session was called to a halt early due to a red flag. Similarly, Night Qualifying was also interrupted, a red flag shown within minutes of the session kicking off due to a car in the barriers at Eau Rouge. The closeness of the competition was shown by the fact that a record 36 cars qualified within a single second, and an incredible 55 cars were within two seconds of the fastest time over the longest lap of the season. The interruptions and constant traffic didn’t help Team BLACK FALCON’s efforts, so with the aggregated times over the two sessions #4 would line up 22nd, narrowly missing out on the Superpole session that would set the top 20 positions for the race. #16 lined up 39th – but barely a second from pole – with #18 45th and #15 back in 50th.

After a day of preparation on Friday, the race beckoned. At 16:30 on Saturday the massive field of GT3s streamed through the La Source hairpin and down towards Eau Rouge for the opening lap. Despite some wobbles as cars scrapped to thread the eye of the needle that is Eau Rouge, the pack made it through unscathed to complete the first two-and-a-half minute lap. Over the first hour Yelmer pushed on in #4, whilst Jeroen made fabulous gains #15, making up 10 positions in the Pro-Am class during his stint. #16 improved to 20th, claiming an excellent second in Pro-Am and closing the gap to the class leader. It was an intense opening phase, with many penalties for track limits handed out as drivers pushed hard. There was a first Full Course Yellow and subsequent Safety Car period as a car lost control at Raidillon, but the Team BLACK FALCON quartet all maintained pace whilst keeping within their limits, aware of the length of the race that stretched ahead. 

At one quarter distance, the #4 crew were at the periphery of the top 10 and still on the lead lap, with #16 on their tail and chasing down the Pro-Am class leader. #18 had broken the top 20, with the #15 crew up to an impressive 27th having made up 23 places since the start of the race. All the drivers were putting in excellent performances, inexorably making up positions whilst driving sensibly within the team’s long-term strategy.

As darkness descended over Spa, #4 broke into the top 10, while Max in #16 moved into 12th to lead Pro-Am. #18 circulated in an appropriate 18th; #15 had moved another place forward. Night-time in a 24-hour race is always about survival: lap times can get faster but points of reference fundamentally change and Spa’s fast layout becomes even more challenging. Several cars misjudged Eau Rouge, causing further interruptions to the race, and sadly both #15 and #18 fell victim to the darkness, the two Mercedes lost to accidents in the very early morning. Particularly disappointing was that Hubert retired #18 from second position in Pro-Am. As the night wore on, a light rain shower became a heavy one – though it was intermittent for around an hour. #4 stuck it out on slicks tyres, braving the tricky conditions and benefitting as a result as the rain eased. At the halfway point of 04:30, #4 were looking strong in seventh overall and #16 continued to lead Pro-Am.

A misty but dry morning greeted the drivers as Spa woke up around them: just 45 cars were still circulating after significant attrition overnight. Marvin had worked on consolidating the lead for #16 in Pro Am, though the car suffered a temporary set-back when they were called in for a drive-through penalty following a pit-lane infringement, losing some time to the cars that were chasing them. Ahead, the #4 crew were putting everything into closing up to the cars ahead: they were just off the back of the lead lap at this stage, with Yelmer in #4 putting in qualifying-style laps in his efforts to remain in contention. The accidents kept coming: further Full Course Yellow periods covered clear-up operations for several more incidents, and by the final three hours of the race yet more cars had fallen by the wayside: only 35 cars were still racing. 

The final phase of the Spa 24 Hours was relatively straightforward for Team BLACK FALCON: it was a simple case of pushing as hard as they could. After another great stint from Miguel, Oliver jumped into #16 for his final stint of the race. He subsequently handed over to Marvin to take the Mercedes to the finish, who at one point stretched their lead in Pro-Am to two laps before bringing #16 over the line in a fantastic first place in Pro-Am and an impressive 12th place overall. In #4, Adam remained locked in a battle for seventh position for many hours with another Mercedes, eventually having to settle for eighth at the flag. The satisfaction of even completing a 24 hour race is deserved, being the result of a holistic effort by every member of the race team – drivers, mechanics, engineers and support staff alike – so Team BLACK FALCON can be extremely proud of their results at the 2017 Spa 24 Hours. 

There’s now one race remaining in the 2017 championship, one final chance to claim more silverware; Team BLACK FALCON have a two month break to prepare for the finale in Spain. You can support Team BLACK FALCON across social media. 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 great images of the team in action.

Race dates:

2017 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup

Round 5: 30 September-01 October (Barcelona)

^{Image source: Akl Yazbeck / Sportscode Images}