BLACK FALCON achieves unprecedented achievement at VLN launch

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VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring - Race Report

BLACK FALCON achieved one of the best results in the team' s history at the 2019 VLN season opener.  The team from Meuspath secured three class victories: The Mercedes-AMG GT4 #162 by Tobias Müller, Tim Scheerbarth and Tristan Viidas won in the SP10, while Mustafa Mehmet Kaya, Gabriele Piana and Ace Robey were successful in the SP8T with the Mercedes-AMG GT4 #155.  Alexander Akimenkov, Ronny Lethmate and Vasilii Selivanov in their Porsche 991 Carrera #395 not only clinched class victory in the V6, but also the group victory of the production cars.  Three more BLACK FALCON cars remained unlucky at the 65th edition of the ADAC Westfalenfahrt and all of them retired early through no fault of their own.

The first VLN race of the year started with a significant delay: thick fog prevented the start of qualifying on Saturday morning for four hours and thus shortened the race distance to 2 hours and 45 minutes - just enough to award the full championship points for the race results.

The AMG GT4 from Müller, Scheerbarth and Viidas started the new season with a perfect weekend.  In qualifying, which was also shortened, the trio put the BLACK FALCON Team IDENTICA-AMG GT4 on pole position.  Start driver Scheerbarth handed the car over leading to the reigning VLN junior champion Viidas, who was able to extend the gap and hand it over to Müller, also in 1st place.  The 21-year-old Müller crossed the finish line after 19 laps in first place and secured BLACK FALCON the class victory in GT4 class.

In the SP8T class Kaya, Piana and Robey achieved a hat-trick from pole position, fastest race lap and class victory.  At the start of the race, AMG professional Piana demonstrated the possibilities of the BLACK FALCON Team TEXTAR-AMG GT4, which is not tied to GT4 homologation, and passed multiple GT3 cars.  For the second stint, Kaya took over the 500-hp AMG and handed over the leading car to the final driver and BLACK FALCON newcomer Robey.  The American finally crossed the finish line after 19 laps as class winner of the SP8T.

The #395 Porsche 991 Carrera also clinched a perfect race in the V6 class: Akimenkov, Lethmate and Selivanov secured pole position, fastest lap and class victory as well as being the fastest car of the production cars in the classification group.  The newly built 991 in TEXTAR design made a successful debut and was always leading the class during the race.  Start driver Akimenkov handed over the 911 to Lethmate, who further extended the lead.  The third and final stint was completed by Selivanov, who took the win after 18 laps.

For the BLACK FALCON Team AutoArena Motorsport with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Patrick Assenheimer, Yelmer Buurman and Gabriele Piana, the race ended on the first lap after a racing accident.  Start driver Buurman could not avoid a car spinning in front of him and had to stop the damaged AMG GT3 afterwards.

The Mercedes-AMG GT4 with start number 152 of Christoph Hoffmann, Axel König and Norbert Schneider had a turbulent weekend.  After an accident in free practice on Friday morning, the BLACK FALCON mechanics rebuilt the yellow-black AMG GT4 in KNUFFI livery overnight.  The rollout and the qualifying session went smoothly, but due to a clutch failure the car had to be parked before the start of the formation lap.

For a long time Thomas Bolz, Carsten Palluth and Carlos Rivas fought for class victory in the #394 Porsche 911 Carrera after they had achieved the second fastest time in qualifying and thus secured the double pole-position in the V6 class for the BLACK FALCON Team TEXTAR.  A puncture finally stopped the trio and ensured the early end of the race.

The next VLN race will take place on Saturday, 13.04.2019, at the Nürburgring.

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