BLACK FALCON celebrates double victory at VLN season's highlight

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VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring - Race Report Round 5

BLACK FALCON has won the six-hour race of the VLN Endurance Championship at the Nürburgring. Patrick Assenheimer (DE) and Maro Engel (DE) secured the second VLN overall victory in a row for the BLACK FALCON Team AutoArena Motorsport. The duo already beat their rivals in the qualifying session, which was marked by heavy rain showers, and started the race from pole position. After a perfect performance final driver Engel crossed the finish line with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#6) after 40 laps as overall winner of the fifth round. The sister car, the AM Solutions AMG GT3 (#16) of Adam Christodoulou (GB), Hubert Haupt (DE) and Luca Stolz (DE), finished the race in second place after hours of fighting for victory and thus ensured the first VLN double victory in BLACK FALCON team history. The excellent result was rounded off by a class win in the SP8T and further podium finishes in the SP8T, SP7 and V6 classes.

In addition to the overall double victory, the Meuspath team celebrated victory in the SP8T class with the AM Solutions Mercedes-AMG GT4 (#155) by Mustafa Mehmet Kaya (TR), Gabriele Piana (IT), Reinhold Renger (DE) and Stephan Rösler (DE). Thanks to a strong driving performance, the car also finished on a strong 16th place in the overall classification. Their teammates Ace Robey (US) and Tobias Wahl (DE) secured an excellent third place in the class with the sister car, the Knuffi Mercedes-AMG GT4 (#152) and thus another double podium for BLACK FALCON.

The previous serial winner of the SP10 class, the IDENTICA Mercedes-AMG GT4 (#162) of Tobias Müller (DE), Tim Scheerbarth (DE), Tristan Viidas (EE) and 6-hour race support Yannick Mettler (CH), was in the lead until shortly before the end and looked like the certain class winner. However, the car was hit by another car during a lapping attempt and then had to complete half a lap with a puncture. Due to this enormous loss of time the car ended up in fourth place.

The BLACK FALCON Team TEXTAR Porsche cars claimed two podium places. After the qualifying the team faced a big challenge: The Porsche 991 GT3 Cup MR II (#57) of Peter Ludwig (US), Carlos Rivas (LU), Maik Rosenberg (DE) and "Takis" (CH) had to be repaired after an accident in the rainy qualifying in the two-hour break between training and race. The team made it to the starting grid at the last second. After an exhausting race the quartet evtnually finished second in the SP7 class. After an also difficult qualifying and a resulting start from the pit lane, Alexander Akimenkov (RU), Ronny Lethmate (DE) and Vasilii Selivanov (RU) in the production Porsche 991 Carrera (#395) proved a great morale. The trio fought their way from last place in the starting group to the podium in the V6 class - second place!

Voices on the race

Alexander Böhm (Managing Director BLACK FALCON GmbH & Co. KG): "An almost perfect weekend! The first double victory in the BLACK FALCON team history is another great milestone, congratulations to the whole team for this success. I am also very happy about the great results of the other cars and especially about the problem-free race of the Knuffi-AMG, which has been badly troubled this season so far. Unfortunately our winning streak in the SP10 is broken, but in the fight for the championship everything is still open".

Sean Paul Breslin (Team Principal BLACK FALCON GT): "We achieved a perfect result with our two Mercedes-AMG GT3 - pole position, first place and second place - it couldn't be better. I'm very proud of the whole team. Many thanks to all involved, to our drivers as well as to our partners".

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