Restructuring at BLACK FALCON – Focus on Customer Sports

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BLACK FALCON Press Release 18.06.2020

After ten extremely successful years, BLACK FALCON withdraws from professional GT3 sport at the Nürburgring Nordschleife and the GT World Challenge at the start of the 2020 season.
BLACK FALCON's involvement in the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland as well as in customer sport on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, however, remains unchanged.
In the future, BLACK FALCON will focus even more strongly on national and international customer sport missions with AMG, Ferrari and Porsche vehicles as well as on the support of customer-owned racing cars on the most interesting race tracks in the world.
The simracing activities of BLACK FALCON, which were started during the Corona crisis, are to be further expanded and professionalised.

Focus on customer sport
BLACK FALCON will in future concentrate even more on its core business, customer sport with high-quality GT vehicles. This includes the worldwide deployments in the 24h Series by Creventic with AMG GT3, GT4, and Porsche vehicles. In the 24h Series BLACK FALCON has already celebrated seven overall victories since 2012. On a European level, the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland and, from 2021, the Ferrari Challenge will continue to be the focus of attention. In the national racing sport the emphasis is as before on the NLS endurance races and the 24h - events at the Nürburgring. Here the new Porsche 991 GT3 Cup MR Pro will be the spearhead of the BLACK FALCON fleet. With this vehicle, lap times close to those of the GT3 vehicles are possible at comparatively low operating costs. The Mercedes - AMG GT4 in the more than 500 hp strong SP8T - version as well as the Porsche Cayman GT4 round off the BLACK FALCON long distance program together with the Porsche 911 - vehicles in the production car class. All customer sport assignments will be coordinated and carried out in future by the new Head of Motor Sport at BLACK FALCON, Timo Frings, in cooperation with Niko Driediger, who has been Technical Director for many years.

Focus on customer-owned vehicles
BLACK FALCON will significantly expand its services for customer-owned racing and sports cars. BLACK FALCON maintains its customers' vehicles all year round at its Meuspath location and, depending on customer requirements, uses them at test and racing events around the world. The main focus is on the racetracks in Germany and its neighbouring countries in the summer, and on the tracks in Southern Europe, USA and the Middle East in the winter.

Company incentives at the Nürburgring
Incentives with industry partners and guests have always been part of the core business of the BLACK FALCON brand. In addition to the facilities in the main building in Meuspath, the BLACK FALCON TOWER - LOUNGE in the TÜV - Tower of the Nürburgring GP circuit has been available for events since the beginning of 2019. As soon as the Corona restrictions have been lifted, BLACK FALCON drivers, partners and guests will once again be able to enjoy BLACK FALCON's extensive range of events around the Nürburgring.

Simracing - Program for BLACK FALCON drivers
Since March 2020, BLACK FALCON has also been involved in the DNLS, the "Digital Nürburgring Long Distance Series", in addition to its worldwide involvement in real motor sports. In the course of the year, engagements in further series are to be added. The BLACK FALCON drivers are supported by experienced Simracing specialists as coaches. From autumn 2020, BLACK FALCON drivers will also have access to a professional simulator at the BLACK FALCON headquarters in Meuspath.

Time out from professional GT3 - Sport
BLACK FALCON has been one of the most successful teams in international GT3 sport for many years. The races on the Nürburgring Nordschleife and in the GT World Challenge, which are carried out in cooperation with Mercedes - AMG, play an important role in this respect. Due to the increasing professionalisation, the financing of these missions is a great challenge for a private team financed purely by racing. Before the Corona crisis, this challenge was well met by income from partner contracts, the BLACK FALCON customer sports programme and company incentives over many years. However, in view of the considerable impairment of motor sport due to travel restrictions, the cancellation of major events and the ban on spectators and team guests at the track, most of this income will be lost for a long time.  For BLACK FALCON, the decision to take time out from factory supported racing was therefore the inevitable reaction to the economic consequences of the Corona pandemic.

BLACK FALCON managing director Alexander Böhm: "The last three months were by far the most difficult in the team's 15 year history. The ban on events affects almost all of our business areas and is currently causing sales losses of over 90%. We have therefore decided to withdraw from professional GT3 sport until at least the end of 2021, i.e. to do without factory-supported assignments with professional drivers. This was a purely mental decision and unfortunately unavoidable for the economic security of BLACK FALCON".

Successful GT3 - History at the Nürburgring and in the GT World Challenge
On 16.10.2010 a Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 used by BLACK FALCON started for the first time at the VLN on the Nürburgring. Right at the first race BLACK FALCON with drivers Thomas Jäger and Christopher Haase achieved the overall victory, which was the first victory of a SLS AMG GT3 worldwide and the first overall victory of a Mercedes on the traditional track after 12 years. In the following nine years BLACK FALCON achieved with the SLS AMG GT3 and the Mercedes - AMG GT3 a total of 14 overall victories on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife, two of them at the legendary classic, the 24h race Nürburgring.
Since 2012 BLACK FALCON has also been involved in the GT World Challenge (formerly Blancpain GT Series), the highlights so far are two overall victories and the title in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup in 2018.

BLACK FALCON - Driver founds his own GT3 - Team
In the course of the latest developments, the long-time BLACK FALCON driver Hubert Haupt has decided to found his own professional GT3 team. BLACK FALCON - Managing Director Alexander Böhm: "We would like to thank Hubert Haupt for the successful cooperation over the last few years and wish him and his employees good luck and success for the new challenge.