Adam Christodoulou (GB) finished in second place in VLN2 giving him and his Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon team-mates confidence ahead of next month’s Nürburgring 24 Hour.
Adam was joined in the four-hour race by his 2016 Nürburgring 24 Hour-winning team-mates Maro Engel (DE) and Manuel Metzger (DE), along with Dirk Metzger (DE) to navigate the challenging 28km-long circuit. The team, as usual, was met with tough competition - an impressive 175 cars took to the track – but they rose to the challenge and placed the car third in the closing minutes of qualifying.
Adam said;
“The weekend started really well with a great private test on Tuesday, it was the first outing for us as a team this year and this allowed us to work on our set-up and understand the performance of the car. The team and car gave us exceptional confidence to
‘hit the ground running’”
The number 14 car challenged for the lead throughout the race, with Maro putting the car into second and fighting his way to lead briefly, before handing over to Manuel who held position throughout the second stint.
Adam took over the wheel for stint three to battle with Audi (car #29) for lead;
‘I was pushing the Audi hard, we had some real close moments but he played fair, I managed to get on the outside the Grand Prix circuit for three or four corners to then take the lead for the second half of my stint before handing over to Dirk who put in a stellar performance defending our position, battling to hold off Porsche and avoid being caught in an incident right in front of us on the final lap, unfortunately a pit stop and the way the slow zones fell meant BMW managed to jump through and beat us over the line.
“Still, it’s fantastic to see four different manufacturers fighting for the podium and it just shows how competitive the championship has become. To finish in second in our Nürburgring season-opener is a fantastic result and secures us a top-30 qualifying place for the Nurburgring 24 Hour.”
“The result has given us confidence going into our final preparations in the run-up to the 24-hour event, we know it is going to be a challenge by the nature and the unpredictability of the circuit, but we have a great opportunity and are well placed with the wealth of experience and knowledge behind the car.”
The team will line up again next weekend (13-15th April) for the Nürburgring 24 Hour qualifying race before making a bid for their place on the podium in the most prestigious endurance race of the calendar and the world-renowned Nürburgring 24 Hours (10-13th May).
