Black Falcon celebrates third championship title

The Team Black Falcon was delirious with joy. The new champions in the VLN endurance racing championship are Carsten Knechtges (Mayen/ Germany), Manuel Metzger (Rickenbach-Hütten/ Germany) and Tim Scheerbarth (Dormagen/ Germany). After 2008 and 2009, the young driver trio secured the third title for the racing team from Kelberg in the Eifel region. Two further trophies were awarded to the team of Black Falcon as, in addition to the championship title, Knechtges, Metzger and Scheerbarth also won the VLN series production cup as well as the VLN Junior Trophy. In bright sunshine, Marc Basseng (Leutenbach/ Germany), Christopher Mies (Heiligenhaus/ Germany) and Michael Ammermüller (Pocking/ Germany) celebrated the second victory of an Audi R8 LMS. Final driver Basseng took the chequered flag with an advance of 59.225 seconds ahead of second placed Chris Mamerow (Castrop-Rauxel/ Germany) and Armin Hahne (Wimbach/ Germany) in the SLS AMG GT3 entered by Mamerow-Racing. The top three were completed by Edward Sandström (Sweden), Nico Bastian (Frankfurt/ Germany) and Hendrik Vieth (Leer/ Germany) who scored their second result on the podium in the season 2011 for the BMW Z4 GT3 of the team Need for Speed Team Schubert. A 30 minutes summary of the race will be broadcasted in channel Sport 1 on 8th of November at 17:30hrs.

With their third triumph, Black Flacon has now closed up to the established VLN team Bonk Motorsport who have also scored three titles so far. “Fantastic”, said team manager Alex Böhm, who himself was racing in the champion teams in 2008 and 2009. “We did of course start the season thinking that we might not be totally without chances in the fight for the championship. That our guys however finally won in such a superior manner – we would never have expected that regarding the high level of competition throughout the year. A fantastic result for Carsten, Manuel and Tim, and for the whole of our team as well of course as they have worked so hard for this result.” For the three youngsters, the win of the championship title is a first big milestone in their motorsport career. “It is of utmost importance for me to be on top of the podium at the end of the endurance racing season”, said Scheerbarth and team mate Metzger adds: “We have left behind us quite a number of experienced race drivers, and this at the most beautiful and most demanding track of the world.” The possibilities which will now open for the new champions are last but not least demonstrated by the career of Christer Jöns (Ingelheim/ Germany), who won the junior classification with Black Falcon twice in a row. In 2011, Jöns competed in the ADAC GT Masters for the Audi Team Abt Sportsline. “I am looking forward to see how things will now develop”, said Knechtges. “I hope that after this fantastic success, I will be able to find a good cockpit again for next season.”

After they have received the symbolic start number 1 by the two VLN managing directors Dietmar Busch /Radevormwald/ Germany) and Karl Mauer (Ahütte/ Germany) at the season finale, Knechtes, Metzger and Scheerbarth will also be awarded their winners’ trophies on 10th December at the Dorint Hotel Nürburgring during the big VLN annual prizegiving ceremony. The two Renault Clio drivers Dominik Brinkmann (Dortmund/ Germany) and Stephan Epp (Wuppertal/ Germany) will then also be honoured for their second championship place. Into third place of the series in the season 2011 finished last year’s champions Mario Merten (Nürburg/ Germany) and Wolf Silvester (Nürnberg/ Germany) in the BMW of the team Bonk-Motorsport.

After starting from pole position, the Manthey Porsche with drivers Lucas Luhr (Switzerland) and Marc Lieb (Ludwigsburg/ Germany), which had achieved two victories recently, had to retire after 14 laps. Luhr complained about a lack of drive. Bastian in the Schubert Z4 temporarily went into the lead. “That was a great feeling to lead the race at my first participation with a GT3 car”, said the newly crowned winner of the Mini Challenge. “The Z4 is a really great race car and I had great fun with it at the Nordschleife – and it makes you want more.” Due to a variant in the pit strategy, the Phoenix Team finally took over the lead which they kept until the four hours race distance had elapsed. “This victory is a true release for Audi”, said Basseng. “Many persons have put a lot of energy in this project and they have now really deserved to celebrate this success. For me, the race was anything than easy in the end – I had to push very hard.” The Mamerow Team with the SLS was not able to go the pace of the R8. “Another second place at the finale of the season is fantastic”, said Hahne. “Of course, we would have liked to finish on top of the podium but the Audi was simply too strong today.” Behind the top three, Mike Stursberg (Wermelskirchen/ Germany) and Richard Westbrook (Great Britain) in the Haribo-Porsche limited the defeat for the Mathey Team. The SLS AMG with drivers Alexander Roloff (Berlin), Hubert Haupt (Munich) and Roland Rehfeld (Blankenfelde/ Germany) entered by ROWE-Racing finished fifth after 28 race laps.