The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 finished the 24 Hour Race at Dubai (13 to 15 January 2011), in which the team participated as the final stage of the development and test programme, into third position. The gullwing race car entered by the private team of Black Flacon with start number 7 was driven by Thomas Jäger (Munich/ Germany, 34 years), Jan Seyffarth (Querfurth/ Germany, 24), Kenneth Heyer (Wegberg/ Germany, 31) and Sean Paul Breslin (London/ Great Britain, 31).
At the end of the 594 race laps, their gap behind the winners was four laps. The first race participation for the three SLS AMG GT3 in the motor sport season 2011 was at the same time the scheduled completion of the development and test programme which was started in 2010.
The second vehicle of Black Falcon, driven by Ralf Schall (Dornstadt/ Germany, 41), Timothy Pappas (Boston/ USA, 37), Bret Curtis (Valencia/ USA, 44) and David Horn (Steinbach/ Germany, 37), came into place 24 with a gap of 69 laps behind the race winners. Start number 8 was involved in an accident, through no fault of their own. The team was able to rejoin the race after a repair time of a little more than two hours and moved up in the field with constant lap times – at the end, they finished into twelfth place in the final classification of class A6.
Thomas Jäger: “For my team mates and me it was a race without any problems with the new SLS AGM GT3. Black Falcon has done a fantastic job and the support provided to our team by the staff of AMG was absolutely great. All in all it was a good team performance which was confirmed by our third place – which we all are very proud of. It is an important confirmation for everyone involved in this project that all of the three cars made it straightaway to the finish.”
