Team Abu Dhabi by Black Falcon have claimed the third Gulf 12 Hours after overcoming a 53 second deficit at the end of the first six hours.
The team of Jeroen Bleekemolen, Bernd Schneider and Khaled Al Qubaisi won with only a one lap advantage after completing more than 300 at the Yas Marina Circuit.
“This has been an unbelievable year which started with victory in the Dubai 24-Hour then we went on to win two more 24-hour races at the Nürburgring and Spa, a 12-Hour race in Australia and tonight we cap it with a win in Abu Dhabi.” Team Abu Dhabi by Black Falcon’s Bernd Schneider said. “It’s full credit to my fellow drivers Jeroen and Khaled, they did an amazing job,” he added.
They overcome a poor pitstop in the first six hours of the two part Gulf 12 Hours to beat a hard charging AF Corse Ferrari which were conflicted with electrical issues and a slow puncture in the second six hours.
It was also a good day for the M-Sport Bentley, a fourth place finish in only its first race at the hands of Guy Smith, Steven Kane and Andy Meyrick who beat stiff competition from GT3 stalwarts.
Guy Smith, racing a Bentley for the first time since the Le Mans win of 2003, comments: “Today has been amazing. All three of us found that we could really push the car to the limit, and when we realised we were on for a good result it encouraged us to really test its abilities. It’s given us a lot to look forward to in the Blancpain series next year.”
In the GTX class it was the #91 and #92 Nova Race Ginetta G50s that stole a march early on in the second half of the six hours. Trading paint for lap after lap, the battle only ended when the #92 was called in to the pits for mechanical damage.
The #91 remained unchallenged for the rest of the race, the second placed car was the Optimum Motorsport Ginetta which finished quite a way back.
Finally, CN prototypes – the four car entry list was halved due to problems with the BF Motorsport car spending much of the second six hours in the garage and the Avelon Formula car spinning and hitting the wall in the first half of the Gulf 12 Hours.
