Alexander Böhm (Kelberg/ Germany), Philipp Leisen (Irrel/ Germany) and Carsten Knechtges (Mayen/ Germany) gained the Vice Championship in the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring. With position three in the class of VLN series production cars up to 3.000 cc cylinder capacity (V5), the trio in the BMW Z4 of Black Falcon also won the title in the VLN Series Production Car Cup. Furthermore Carsten Knechtges had scored the victory in the VLN Junior Trophy already before the last round of this most popular endurance racing series in Europe. It is now already for the third time in a row that the most successful youngster of the series comes from the team of Black Falcon. The very good team result for Black Falcon at the season final was completed by the win of the very competitive class of VLN Specials up to 2000 cc cylinder capacity (SP3) gained by Maik Rosenberg (Attendorn/ Germany), Emin Akata (Friedrichshafen/ Germany) and Jürgen Dinstühler (Hückeswagen/ Germany).
”Apart from the overall championship, we have this year thus won all of the titles announced by the series organiser VLN”, is the positive summary of Böhm. “We could thus confirm our strong performance of the last four years. Two Champion titles and two Vice-Champion titles in five years participation in the VLN series for Black Falcon, this can hardly be topped and for me, this represents also a positive conclusion of my active career in the VLN series. It was only due to the number of starters in our classes that we did not completely succeed in gaining the title for the third time in a row. With six class victories, we have even scored one more class win than the current Champions. In 2008 and 2009, luck was on our side, so we now wish to congratulate Mario Merten and Wolf Silvester for their title win.”
The Black-Falcon trio Rosenberg / Akata / Dinstühler has also finished the 2010 season successfully. One retirement and one 14th class position are compensated by eight results in the top 4. The crew in the BMW 320 celebrated two class wins in the highly competitive class SP3 and they finished the series into 25th overall position. “The class win is a really nice success at the end of the season”, said Akata happily. “Despite the difficult conditions prevailing in the last hour of the race, we succeeded in dominating the front wheel driven competitors with our rear wheel driven BMW.”
The spearhead of Black-Falcon, the SLS AMG GT3, yet, had to retire in the final race due to technical failures. Christopher Haase (Kulmbach/ Germany) and Thomas Jäger (Munich/ Germany) were stopped in lap eight with electronic problems. Mehta Vimal (Tanzania), Sean Patrick and Sean Paul Breslin (both from Ireland) had to retire from the race in their Audi R8 LMS after an accident in lap six already.
Even though the engines in the ‘Green Hell’ are now stopped – Black Falcon will hardly have any time to rest. The preparations for the 24 Hour Race in Dubai in January are running at full speed. Furthermore, the preparations for the 2011 season of the VLN endurance racing series and for the ADAC GT Masters are coming up. For next season, the team which is based in Kelberg will enter three of the spectacular SLS AMG GT3 race cars in this latter series.
The successful drivers in the endurance racing series will be awarded their well-deserved prizes on 11th December 2010 in the Dorint Hotel at the Nürburgring.
