BLACK FALCON EYES BRITISH GT CAMPAIGN

DEPUTY EDITOR

Leading Mercedes team Black Falcon will run two cars in this weekend’s British GT Championship round at SpaFrancorchamps as it evaluates a full-time move into the series.

The German squad will field two Mercedes AMG GT3S in the two-hour race, with Briton Oliver Morley sharing the first with DTM driver and FIA European F3 champion Daniel Juncadella and Abdulaziz Al Faisal sharing the second with Miguel Toril.

Black Falcon has a strong history in GT3 racing, having won the Nurburgring 24 Hours twice, including running Briton Adam Christodoulou to victory in this year’s event. The squad also regularly competes in the Blancpain GT Series, VLN and Creventic 24 Hour Series.

Team boss Sean Paul Breslin said: “All four drivers will be running together in the Spa 24 Hours [July 26-31], so on one hand it’s a great chance for a warm-up, but we also wanted to have a closer look and experience British GT.

“Oliver used to race in British GT and wanted to have another crack at it and it’s a very strong series at the moment, and has been in recent years. There’s a good mixture of professional drivers and talented amateurs, so we know it won’t be easy. I’d like to think this race will lead to more British GT appearances, but we’ll have to see how it goes.”

Breslin also added that the Balance of Performance for the Mercedes could prove tricky at Spa: “We have a small engine restrictor, so the long straights could hurt us. The Mercedes has a lot of aero to aid cornering, but also has quite a lot of drag compared to the other GT3 cars. But we have four strong drivers, so it will be an interesting weekend.”

The grid for this weekend’s race had hit 60 cars as MN closed for press, with 17 GT3 cars boosted with 15 GT4 entries and a further 28 cars from the European GT4 Series and KTM Reiter Young Stars class.