The AMG-Team BLACK FALCON wins the 44th edition of the ADAC ZURICH 24h-Race. Adam Christodoulou, Maro Engel, Manuel Metzger and Bernd Schneider scored the win in a breathtaking final overtaking the leading HTP-Motorsport car in the last lap. The finish was the closest in the history of the event. Also Porsche 911 GT3 Cup BF #64 won class SP7, Porsche Carrera #140 won class V6.
After the first victory together at the 24h-race at the Nürburgring back in 2013, BLACK FALCON and Mercedes-AMG scored a second overall victory with the SAP-Mercedes-AMG GT3 number 4. It was the first start for the all new Mercedes-AMG GT3 at the Nürburgring 24 hours. The victorious driver quartet of Adam Christodoulou, Maro Engel, Manuel Metzger and Bernd Schneider started from Position 17 into the weather affected race and had a flawless and nearly perfect race over the full distance. Less than one minute before the 24 hour mark Christian Hohenadel in the then leading HTP-Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Maro Engel in the AMG-Team BLACK FALCON Mercedes-AMG GT3 crossed the line with less than a second apart. Engel made a move on the GP-track and fought his way around Hohenadel making the move for BLACK FALCON´s second victory at the ADAC Zurich 24h-race.
The BILSTEIN-Mercedes-AMG GT3 of AMG-Team BLACK FALCON finished the race in fourth overall position. After Maro Engel took pole-position in Top-30-Qualifying for AMG-Team BLACK FALCON and his teammates Hubert Haupt, Dirk Müller and Yelmer Buurman the car was in Top-5 over the whole 24 hours distance. In the end the team of number 9 missed the podium by less than a minute.
In class SP7 Arturo Devigus, Alexander Toril, Andreas Weishaupt and Mario Farnbacher took the victory with BLACK FALCON Team TMD Friction´s Porsche 911 GT3 Cup BF. The four drivers did not make any mistake during the whole race. As the best not-GT3-car they scored a fantastic 15th overall position. Also Farnbacher and Toril drove the fastest laps of the class in the morning hours. The victory is the third consecutive win of class SP7 in a row at the 24 hours of the Nürburgring.
Andre Kuhn, Philip, Aurel Schoeller and Miguel Toril repeated last years victory and won class V6 in the Porsche 911 Carrera. The quartet was able to gain a gap of over five minutes during the night in the heavily competitive class and finished the race in a fantastic 31st position overall meaning they were the best car of production category.
BLACK FALCON´s Mercedes-AMG GT3 #14 driven by Abdulaziz Al Faisal, Gerwin, Indy Dontje and Rob Huff was unlucky the whole weekend. After technical problems in the free practice and a crash in the night qualifying on Thursday the team qualified for Top-30-shootout with the last lap in Friday mornings second qualifying session. During the race the car was in a good position until a crash unfortunately ended the race on Sunday morning.
The 24h-debuts Christian Björn-Hansen, Runar Vatne, „Sugar Mountain“ and Stefan Karg unfortunately did not see the checkered flag. After the mechanics were able to fix the car when it crashed during the undriveable conditions on Saturday evening the Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport #351 was well positioned in the race until Sunday morning. Another competitor destroyed all hopes for a good result when he crashed into the Cayman.
