Black Falcon vs Belgium Racing as 992 Endurance Cup hits half-distance

Black Falcon Team 48 Losch leads the Michelin 992 Endurance Cup powered by Porsche Motorsport after six hours, albeit be only 25 seconds from PRO/AM class leader Belgium Racing.

Black Falcon Team 48 Losch (#48, Loek Hartog / Christopher Mies / Tobias Müller / Noah Nagelsdiek) has led much of the first half of the event, aided by a strong double stint in the opening stages by Christopher Mies. The two-time Nürburgring 24 Hours winner was one of only two drivers to run at least 2 hours and 30 minutes consecutively at the start of the event, the other being Mike Stursberg in the sister Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992).

A 20-minute full course caution during the third hour however eroded all but four seconds of Black Falcon Team 48 Losch’s lead when the race finally went green again. Two laps later, 2nd-placed Belgium Racing (#99, Dylan Derdaele / Jan Lauryssen / Sacha Norden) moved ahead with a pass for position down the inside of Bruxelles. The hometown team had started to pull away before a drive-through penalty for exceeding track limits put Black Falcon back in front.

Belgium Racing’s closest rival now is 3rd-placed H-2-H Racing (#15, Gilles Verleyen / Guillaume Mondron / Mathieu Detry / Stanislav Minsky), which has worked its way up from 14th on the grid and was just over three seconds adrift after six hours.

Neuhofer Rennsport (#86, Felix Neuhofer / Alfred Renauer / Robert Renauer / Martin Ragginger), which spent much of a very combative race in the overall top five, is just 26 seconds further back in 4th ahead of Tierra Outdoor Racing by HWM (#33, Ralph Poppelaars / Jop Rappange / Hans Weijs). The latter has methodically worked its way through the field from 10th on the grid, and currently lies 2nd in PRO/AM.

Amazingly, despite battling understeer early on, Red Camel-Jordans.nl (#9, Ivo Breukers / Luc Breukers / Rik Breukers / Fabian Danz) launched itself from 13th on the grid to 6th by the end of the opening lap, and even went on to run as high as 2nd this afternoon. Unluckily, off-strategy with the leaders, Red Camel-Jordans fell of the lead lap just as the second full course caution period was called, and is thus the first of the lead cars off the lead lap in 6th.

Event polesitter Max Kruse Racing (#8, Jan Jaap van Roon / Tom Coronel / Paul Meijer / Benjamin Leuchter) is currently 7th. The German team retained its lead on the opening lap, but an electrical gremlin, and the resultant loss of pace, cost the team six places shortly thereafter, and further delays during the pit stops have shuffled the polesitter off the lead lap.

The second Max Kruse Racing Porsche (#10, Marcel Fugel / Dominik Fugel / Nico Otto / Benjamin Leuchter) had been running in the overall top five, but opted for a full brake change during the second full course yellow, and is now attempting to work its way back into contention in 12th.

Thanks to an ambitious early pit stop, during which the team refueled but opted against changing tyres and drivers, both Belgium Racing Porsches at one stage were running 1st and 2nd overall. Three drive-through penalties have seen the second Belgium Racing Porsche Belgium Racing (#98, Michael Cool / Ghislain Cordeel / Kobe de Breucker) slip back to 8th, although the team is still running 1st and 3rd in PRO/AM after six hours.

The first of three Mühlner Motorsport Porsches (#18, Parker Thompson / Jared Thomas / Anthony McIntosh / Glenn McGee) is currently running 9th overall, just ahead of the second Neuhofer Rennsport entry Neuhofer Rennsport (#85, Eric Kwong / Henry Kwong / Dylan Yip / Jinlong Bao). The latter currently leads the AM class.

An impressive run to 2nd in AM for Team Laptime-Performance (#233, Reinhold Krahn / Adrian Comstock / Thomas Merrill / Charlie Hayes), from the penultimate row of the grid no less, was brought to an end during the fifth hour when the Porsche beached itself in the gravel at Campus. This brought out the second full-course caution period of the 992 Endurance Cup thus far.

Qatar’s QMMF by HRT (#31, Abdulla Ali Al Khelaif / Ghanim Al Ali / Ibrahim Al Abdulghani / Julian Hanses) is now 2nd in AM and 11th overall on the road. And while Team Laptime-Performance has slipped off the category podium, the German team is still less than two minutes behind Seblajoux Racing by DUWO Racing (#888, Sebastien Lajoux / Stéphane Perrin / Laurent Misbach / Mathys Jaubert).

MRS GT-Racing has endured a tough afternoon at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. The German team’s all-Brazilian #88 entry (Marcus Vinicius Neves / Rouman Ziemkiewicz / Eduardo Menossi / Carlos Vidigal Renaux) was the first to hit trouble when the Porsche lost its left rear wheel on the approach to the Kemmel Straight. The sister #89 (Francisco Horta / Lucas Salles / Nelson Monteiro / Marcio Mauro) spent more than 40 minutes in the pits with a punctured radiator, while the #90 (Therese Lahlouh / Madeline Stewart / Alex Sedgwick / Nicolas Romano) was eventually brought into the garage with a loose undertray.

The second Black Falcon Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) (#5, Mustafa Mehmet Kaya / Christopher Mies / Gabriele Piana / Mike Stursberg) also hit trouble in the very early stages. Contact with AM polesitter Mühlner Motorsport (#21, Ryan Yardley / Anthony McIntosh / Glenn McGee / Tyler Hoffman) – the Belgian team’s third and final entry this weekend – at La Source on the opening lap sent the Black Falcon Porsche into the gravel, dropping the German team three laps off the field almost immediately.

Tellingly, Black Falcon’s Gabriele Piana has still posted the fastest lap of the race so far: a 2m 22.045s.

Mühlner Motorsport (#21) lost more than an hour in the pits, the collision having significantly damaged the Porsche’s left front suspension. The Belgian team’s PRO entry meanwhile (#4, Jeroen Bleekemolen / Martin Rump / Fabio Grosse), which started on the outside of the front row, lost valuable time early on to a track limit infringement penalty. The first safety car period of the day gave Mühlner Motorsport the chance to close back up on the leader, and even attempt to recoup its lost lap, only for the team to be handed a five-second stop-go penalty for not respecting refueling regulations. The PRO car has since dropped to 13th.

Team GP-Elite (#12, Peter Munnichs / Koen Munnichs / Wouter Boerekamps), which took the lead in AM following the Mühlner Motorsport-Black Falcon incident, is running 25th following a trip into the tyre barriers at Campus during the third hour. The impact ruptured the radiator, cost the Dutch team almost an hour in the pits, and brought out the first full course caution.

Though an accident in qualifying prevented the team from posting a time, Elfer Motorhome (#911, Leo Pichler / Kevin Raith / Andreas Höfler / Peter Eibisberger) was able to complete repairs overnight, and, from the back row of the grid, is running 17th after six hours. Overtaking under the second safety car period however did land the Austrian team a 30-second stop-go penalty,

PTE operated by Manthey Racing (#992, Joel Monegro / Campbell Nunn / Jukka Honkavuori / Constantin Dressler), the official entry of the Porsche Track Experience, is currently running one place further ahead in 17th with two graduates of Porsche’s ‘Rennsport Academy’ driver training program onboard.