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Friday, 1 April 2011
VLN- “Tight schedule“ in the season 2011- Black Falcon
“Tight schedule“ in the season 2011
“Tight schedule” is the motto not only for the Nürburgring but also for Black Falcon. The team which is based in Kelberg near the Nürburgring has ambitious targets again for the VLN season 2011. The maximum team which will at least compete in seven of the ten VLN races consists of three SLS AMG GT3, three VLN standard production cars and one group H car.The permanent staff was increased by additional engineers and technical staff to be well prepared for the new challenges. The drivers, too, were completed by some newcomers for the current season: Some nationally and internationally well known drivers such as Jeroen Bleekemolen, Thomas Jäger, Ralf Schall, Jan Seyffarth, Hannes Plesse and Robert Renauer have joined the team of SLS regular drivers Kenneth Heyer, Sean Paul Breslin and Andrii Lebed. A pure SLS AMG GT3 customer car will in addition be driven by Vimal Mehta und Sean Breslin.
With this first class team of drivers and the new race car from AMG, with which an overall win in a VLN race 2010 and a third place in the 2010 24 Hours Race at Dubai have already been scored, Black Falcon intends to finish on the podium in the VLN and at the 24h Race Nürburgring. Black Falcon will furthermore compete in the 24h of Spa Francorchamps and with up to two SLS AMG GT3 in all races of the ADAC GT Masters Series
As usual, many BMW series production cars will also be at the start in the 2011 season for the Falken team. A completely independent team with entrant “Black Falcon Team TMD Friction” has been created in order to even better take care of young rookies and VLN newcomer.
In addition to a BMW M3 E46 in class V6 and two BMW Series production cars in class V5, the successful Mercedes 190 DTM of Andreas and Ralf Schall which is so popular with all the fans will also be entered in the colours of the Black Flacon Team TMD Friction.
The team internal promotion of young drivers has also been further developed: After three VLN titles in the Junior Championship, the Black Falcon Team TMD Friction has now for the first time entered a crew purely consisting of juniors (all of the drivers younger than 25 years) in the endurance racing championship. The drivers are Carsten Knechtges, Tim Scheerbarth and Manuel Metzger. The team’s target has not changed and they will try to achieve a position amongst the “top five” in the VLN overall classification and another win in the VLN Junior Championship again.
At the VLN test and set-up session last weekend, the new structure of the team has already stood the test perfectly. Both teams had a perfect test session and all the drivers were very happy with their performances. This is how it should be – the VLN season can start!
Info and Foto: Black Falcon / VLN.de
Manthey well prepared for the start of the season
Manthey well prepared for the start of the season
In sunny spring weather last Saturday, seven Porsche 911 GT3 race cars entered by Manthey-Racing completed their laps at the Nordschleife for the first time in the year 2011.
The first common roll-out of the VLN teams revealed that the season 2011 will be a very special one, both for the fans and for the participants: A sensational mix of top drivers and more makes than ever are promising fascinating racing at the most beautiful race track of the world! Whilst Porsche will remain to be the strongest make and, with Manthey-Racing, has a top team in the fight about the race win, their competitors have not taken a rest during winter and did certainly catch up. The very competitive spearhead of Manthey Racing will certainly be challenged by not less than seven brand-new SLS AMG GT3, entered by four teams. Not to forget last year’s winning team of the 24h Race, Schnitzer Motorsport, who will compete at the Eifel circuit with two completely updated BMW M3 GT. For Olaf Manthey, the Phönix-Audi R8 prepared at Meuspath, just around the corner of the Manthey team, must also be considered to be one of the favourite teams. “We are well prepared in the team of Manthey-Racing”, says the experienced strategist. “Everything else will remain to be seen in the next rounds.”
Lucas Luhr who has come back to the team will again be part of the “big” race car in the traditional yellow green design and with start number 11 as regular driver. Due to the close cooperation with Porsche Motorsport, the works drivers Marc Lieb, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas will this year again drive the GT3-R. The crew is completed by Arno Klasen. “The competition will definitely be much closer”, said Lieb at the press conference. “We intend to continue just where we have stopped in 2010”. The race driver from Ludwigshafen/ Germany regrets that according to current plans, he will compete in only three of the ten VLN races for Mantey. “I will however definitely participate in the two 6h races!”.
The opening round of the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring will start this Saturday with the timed practice between 08:30hrs and 10:00hrs. The start of the 58th ADAC Westfalenfahrt over the distance of four hours on the 24.369 kilometres long combination of the Nürburgring short connection and the Nordschleife will then be given at 12 o’clock exactly.
Info and Foto: Manthey Racing/ VLN.de
Hexis boosted by confidence-inspiring win
Hexis Aston Martin started their season in perfect fashion in Abu Dhabi, taking a Championship Race victory which not only rocketed them to the top of the Drivers' and Teams' standings but also boosted their overall title ambitions.
With Clivio Piccione and Stef Dusseldorp - the youngest driver pairing in the field with an average age of just 24 - driving the No. 3 Aston Martin DB9, and Andrea Piccini sharing the No. 4 car with reigning GT3 champion Christian Hohenadel, Hexis scored more than double the points any of its rivals collected in the Championship Race to ensure a stylish start to 2011.
The victory owed much to a rapid pit stop which catapulted Dusseldorp and Piccione from fifth to first - although Piccione had driven brilliantly to keep in touch with the leading pack in the first half of the race, while Dusseldorp's excellent defence in the closing stages also drew the plaudits.
As the Monegasque and Dutch drivers sealed the win, behind them Piccini and Hohenadel also impressed as it gained five places in the evening's main race to finish fourth, less than one second down the road from the third placed All-Inkl Lamborghini of Markus Winkelhock and Marc Basseng.
The result left team manager Philippe Dumas in bullish mood, saying: "We've again proved that we're pretty good at changing tyres, but I don't want to single (them) out. What's important is that this victory has given opur confidence a big boost - we're going to be strong throughout the season and our aim is the championship."
Stef Dusseldorp, who drove superbly on his GT1 debut to hold off a charging Richard Westbrook in the closing stages, said: "This was a brilliant start of the season for me, Clivio and for Hexis AMR. We never thought we could return home with a win from Abu Dhabi, but we've proven to be a young, quick team.
"It will be difficult to race for the win (at Zolder) as we have some ballast from Abu Dhabi, but I think the Aston Martin will suit the track better (than Abu Dhabi). I've also driven there a couple of times in formula racing, and even had my first win in the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC in 2008, so we will do our best to score as many points as possible for the championship!"
Christian Hohenadel, who like Dusseldorp made his GT1 debut on the weekend, was equally motivated by Hexis’ performance, saying: “Fourth place in my debut race is a dream start into the GT1 season - I never would have expected that I would only just miss a place on the podium. With this result I’m very optimistic for the next race at Zolder – we scored good points but have no success ballast in the car, and that gives us a great foundation for the next round.”
Going the extra mile ...
The 2011 season opened in dramatic fashion on the Yas Marina circuit, as the No. 7 Young Driver Aston Martin DB9 of Tomas Enge and Alex Muller missed its braking point on the run down to the first corner - causing an accident that not only led to the car's retirement from the Qualifying Race, but threatened its participation in the Championship Race ...
With the team facing a daunting repair job, Enge and Muller traded their race overalls for a slightly greasier ensemble as they settled in alongside the team mechanics in a scamble to ready the DB9 for the evening's hour-long race.
With drivers and team making a gargantuan effort, the car not only made it onto the Championship Race grid but excelled in the race, as Muller and Enge came through the field to finish a remarkable fourth - putting the duo seventh in the Drivers' standings, and third in the Teams'.
Alex Müller: "There was no time to be wasted and we are a team; we all wanted to be in the Championship Race so we all worked together. Sometimes it is not easy to try to help because the mechanics know what needs to be done and the way they have to do the job but we asked and they gave us work.
"I am a mechanic anyway and I did my apprenticeship at Porsche so I knew I could help if they told me what to do. I took the broken front splitter apart together with my race engineer Claude Roth, we put the new front splitter together and saved some time for the mechanics who had to do so much work!"
Tomas Enge: "I felt guilty (after missing his braking point) and I wanted to help. We didn't have much time, but we all wanted it so I asked what I could do. I was told to clean the floor of the car because it was covered in oil, I changed bolts and got more little tasks by the engineers and mechanics and in the end we were able to make the race because we all worked together as a team."
Erhard Fischer (Team Manager): "I was really surprised to see the car running just before the start of the race because it didn't look promising with such a short period to repair the damage. It was a great team effort and we are very pleased with the result of the Championship Race."
Info and Fotos FIA GT1/For Acreditated and Autorized Media Press.
Many teams invited to the 24 Hours of Le Mans can be seen this weekend at the Paul Ricard circuit at the opening round of the Le Mans Series.
Many teams invited to the 24 Hours of Le Mans can be seen this weekend at the Paul Ricard circuit at the opening round of the Le Mans Series.
Photo : - Ferrari S.p.A
Porsche
To retain their crown Le Mans, the German marque has a new 997 GT3-RSR with refined aerodynamics. The defending champions, Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz, are obviously the favourites for the 6 Hours of Le Castellet, but the cars of Prospeed Competition, Imsa Performance and GruppeM-Eterniti Racing host driver crews as competitive as that of Felbermayr-Proton.
Ferrari
The aggressive lines of the 458 GTC reflect perfectly the mood of a conqueror. For AF Corse, Fisichella-Melo and Bruni-Vilander form two crews. As for JMW Motorsport and Team Farnbacher, they rely respectively on Dunlop and Hankook tyres to gain a competitive edge.
Aston Martin
Jota Sport takes the role of wild-card with a powerful Vantage and a talented driver in the person of Sam Hancock. For the British team, who will return to the Le Mans 24 Hours after six years of absence.
Julien Hergault
Photo: Paul Ricard HTTT, OFFICIAL TESTING FOR LE MANS SERIES, 12 March 2011. Beaten at the wire last year, Bruni-Fisichella will try to secure the Le Mans Series title this year.
Le mans .org
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