The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 started the new season of the VLN endurance racing championship Nürburgring with a sixth place. The Team Black Falcon had started the 4 Hour Race with drivers Sean Edwards, Manuel Metzger and Ralf Schall from eighth grid position and managed to go temporarily in the lead at the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife. The VLN opening round was however marked by adverse weather conditions. Just before half of the race distance had been covered, it started to rain and became increasingly foggy which resulted in the stopping of the race for safety reasons just before 3 hours of the race distance had elapsed. This happened at a moment which was not at all the best one for the gullwing race car with start number 2 as they were one of the first teams amongst the top group who had just completed their third pit stop and a better result was thus spoiled.
The second car of the AMG customer team Black Flacon which is based nearby the Nürburgring, too, was close to finishing in the top 10. The SLS AMG GT3 driven by Stephan Rösler, Hannes Plesse, Christian Bracke and Sean Edwards had to take the start from 24th position on the grid and had moved up into eleventh place when they dropped back in 17th place due to an accident in the section “Hohe Acht” a few minutes before the race was stopped.
The team ROWE RACING finished in their SLS AMG GT3 with drivers Marko Hartung, Michael Zehe and Mark Bullitt into place 20. The second car with Thomas Jäger, Klaus Graf and Alexander Roloff had to retire after eleven laps due to technical failure.
