BLACK FALCON wins 24H COTA USA

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24H Series 24H COTA USA: Race Report

BLACK FALCON started 2018 with victory in a 24-hour race, and they’ve brought their season to an end in exactly the same way, this time with victory in the 24H COTA USA, held at the home of the Formula 1 US Grand Prix. The race took place around the Circuit of The Americas, with BLACK FALCON entering a pair of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 that have brought them so much success.

Both AMGs competed in the A6-Pro class for GT3-homologated race-cars. The #2 AMG starred Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands), Hubert Haupt (Germany), Luca Stolz (Germany) and Ben Keating (USA), while #3 featured a trio of American drivers, Mike Skeen (USA), Scott Heckert (USA) and Bret Curtis (USA), supplemented by the vast experience of team veteran Yelmer Buurman (Netherlands).

Qualifying went well for BLACK FALCON, with their two AMGs lining up second and third on the 34-strong, mixed-class grid. They were just a fraction off the pole time and the fastest of the quartet of AMG GT3 entered in the race. The crew of the #2 car just bested the #3 sister car to win the intra-team qualifying battle. 

The race was split into two segments, with an opening twelve-and-a-half hours that turned out to be bittersweet for BLACK FALCON. After an unfortunate penalty delayed the car at the start, the #2 crew were in maximum attack mode and rapidly worked their way forward, taking first place on lap 17. Their blistering pace then consolidated a lead that seemed almost unassailable, a Code 60 safety period for once working in the team’s favour and allowing #2 to extend its lead to over a lap over its pursuers. 

However, shortly after darkness fell and with #2 having completed 242 laps in the lead, the AMG GT3 collided with a backmarker and was forced to pit with significant damage to the front-end of the car. The ever-efficient BLACK FALCON mechanics worked methodically on the car for over two hours to effect repairs, but by that stage the car had lost so much time that it was out of contention and the team reluctantly retired the car from the event. 

The #3 drivers took up the fight, pushing the new leader for the remaining hours of the race, and they completed the opening race segment in second place after 315 laps. BLACK FALCON’s tilt at victory was now in their hands.

Early on Sunday morning the race recommenced, with the surviving competitors starting in the positions that they had finished the opening segment. A hard eleven and a half hours awaited the quartet of drivers in #3, the length of a full six Formula 1 races, and Sunday’s second phase was no less challenging than the first. But the trio of American drivers, backed up by Yelmer’s steady hands, kept up an impressive pace, dealing with changeable conditions during the race and keeping out of trouble when tackling backmarkers, to deservedly come through and take a grand victory after 603 gruelling laps. 

2018 has seen the team add a vast collection of silverware to their trophy cabinet at their Meuspath base, located right next to the famous Nürburgring Nordschleife, and thoughts are already turning to what can be achieved in 2019. You can also keep up to date with Team BLACK FALCON’s activity 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 races, as well as fantastic images of the team in action.