Black Falcon won a hard-fought victory in the 50. Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy going up against fellow Mercedes-AMG GT3 squad GetSpeed Performance and BMW M6 GT3 team Walkenhorst Motorsport.
GALLERY | INTERVIEW MANUEL METZGER | INTERVIEW CHRISTIAN KROGNES | INTERVIEW DAVID PITTARD | INTERVIEW JODY FANNIN
The three-way battle remained undecided until minutes before the end when Manuel Metzger in the #6 Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 he shared with Patrick Assenheimer emerged out of the pits in front of his two main rivals for victory. The later–and therefor shorter–final pit stop gave Metzger just enough space to get around the final lap unchallenged.
Despite the #2 GetSpeed Performance Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Marek Böckmann and Philip Ellis leading the majority of the race and Ellis putting up a strong defence against Metzger in the final hour, GetSpeed eventually had to settle for second. The team set the pace in the middle part of the to 3 hours and 30 minutes-shortened race, after Böckmann took the lead from the #5 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Vincent Kolb shortly after the first round of pitstops.
Pole-sitter David Pittard lost the lead at the start of the race, but did show heart as he came back to the front a few laps later, going back and forth with #5 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 racer and Nürburgring 24 Hours winner Frank Stippler as they exchanged the lead several times.
An equally fast stint by Jody Fannin and a tremendous push for the win at the end by Christian Krognes to no avail, the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 finished third.
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