April 28, 2015 – Tricky weather conditions during the second VLN round of 2015 prevented Black Falcon from competing for victory, but the team fought hard and finished within the top 10 with one of its cars, against all odds.
Racing got underway on the morning of Saturday, April 25, with Qualifying, in which the #3 Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG GT of Tim Scheerbarth, Adam Christodoulou and Bernd Schneider set the 15th fastest time.
The sister #2 Mercedes that was shared between Abdulaziz Turki AlFaisal, Hubert Haupt, Jaap Van Lagen and Yelmer Buurman suffered from damage during the session, which meant that it couldn’t benefit from the full time on hand, but the team’s relentless effort to get it back on the grid paid off, and the car managed to qualify in 18th position.
The team also ran four Porsches in three different categories: #56 and #57 Porsche 911 GT3 cars in the SP7 class, #394 911 Carrera in the V6 class and #600 911 GT3 in the H4 class.
A good tyre strategy on Saturday’s race start, coupled to some great driving, helped the #3 Mercedes move to the race lead by only the second lap, while contact for the #2 Mercedes put it out of the race, but the team worked very hard to get it back into the action during the final hour.
Rain fell on the circuit when the leading #3 Black Falcon was running on slick tyres, and the car was forced to slowly make its way into the pits for a tyre change. This significantly compromised the team’s race and made it very difficult to fight for front-running positions, but a stellar final stint salvaged seventh place overall.
It was a bittersweet race for the Black Falcon Porsches, with the #56 car taking a great win in SP7, while its sister #57 came to a halt in the cool down lap due to insufficient fuel, and was therefore not classified. The #394 Porsche finished second in the strongly represented V6 category, while the #600 car retired from the H4 class with drive shaft damage.
Sean Paul Breslin, Black Falcon team principal, took out the positives from the difficult race, saying: “Although it was a very tricky race, we were able to gather some great wet and dry data, which will prove to be very useful in the upcoming 24-hour race in May.”
Black Falcon benefited from the running in the second VLN round to approach the 24 Hours of Nürburgring in the best way possible, and the team is now poised to return to the Nordschleife in mid-May in order to retake the throne it had clinched in 2013, and came close to in 2014.