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In 190-car fields, AMG driver Christodoulou brought finished ninth and seventh in the two races, but is confident that there will be more to come at the 24 Hours proper as he seeks to defend his 2016 victory.

1. VLN Lauf 2017, Nürburgring-Nordschleife – Foto: Gruppe C Photography

New regulations introduced this year dictate that teams are not permitted to use confidential tyres, must raise the ride height and also mount the rear wing further forwards, creating a significant change to the balance and handling of his No. 6 Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3.

The 28-year-old felt a notable improvement to the setup for the second race, although traffic in qualifying compromised his best lap. Mired in the mid-pack for the start, Christodoulou and his team-mates were unable to fully utilise the Mercedes-AMG GT3’s prowess in the corners and lost positions on the long back straight.

Christodoulou, who became only the fourth British driver to win the 24 Hours last year, shared with Manuel Metzger and Yelmer Buurman in both races, with Maro Engel set to re-join the team for the 24 Hours after driving the sister Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 in VLN 2.

1. VLN Lauf 2017, Nürburgring-Nordschleife – Foto: Gruppe C Photography

While he hoped for more from the two VLN outings, Christodoulou remains upbeat that Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon will again be in the mix at what is fast-becoming one of the world’s most important endurance races.

“We struggled a little bit with the setup in the first race, but we’ve had some good test days in-between the two races and we’re a lot happier now with the degradation and the setup of the car,” he continued.

“It’s tough, with there only being two VLN races that we can do before the Qualifying race, it doesn’t give you much time to prepare, but we’re starting to understand the car more and we’re getting it to do more of what we want it to, which is really good.”

A veteran of six previous starts at the 24 Hours, Christodoulou added that the form-book is of little consequence at the twice-around-the-clock classic, which is famous for unpredictable weather and a high attrition rate among the SP9 class.

“With the changes to the cars, it’s been a challenge for everyone, nobody really knows where they stand. It might be challenging, especially if it ends up being wet because we haven’t had a single wet race yet,” he added.

“As we saw last year, the Nürburgring 24 hours can throw every type of weather condition at you to try and catch you out, so it’s going to be all about staying clean, making sure you have no damage and reducing the risks to make sure you’re there in the final few hours. To finish first, first you’ve got to finish!”

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The 28-year-old became only the fourth British driver to win the twice-around-the-clock classic last year, as the new Mercedes-AMG GT3 swept the top four positions around the fearsome 24.358km Nordschleife circuit.

To prepare for the 45^th running of the event, Christodoulou will once again contest the Nürburgring-based VLN Endurance Championship, starting this weekend (March 25) with the ADAC Westfalenfahrt.

With a possible grid of up to 160 cars expected, including upwards of 30 GT3 cars, the first VLN meeting of the year is always well-supported and Christodoulou is eagerly anticipating his first outing on the ‘Green Hell’ in 2017.

Christodoulou will be reunited with two of his winning co-drivers from last year aboard the No. 4 Mercedes-AMG GT3, with Maro Engel and Manuel Metzger joined by experienced Dutchman Yelmer Buurmann.

“I’m happy to announce that I’m coming back to the VLN Endurance Championship to continue working on ultimate setups in preparation for the Nürburgring 24 Hours,” he said.

“A few bits on the Nordschleife have changed due to the resurfacing work they’ve done there, so I’m looking forward to getting back to there after a long winter.

“I would advise everybody that the Nürburgring is the best circuit in the world and everyone should race there if they get the opportunity. It’s become like a second home for me, so I’m excited to be back amongst it and hopefully show everybody that last year wasn’t a one off.”

Christodoulou could become the first British driver ever to win the 24 Hours twice and with a year’s experience of the Mercedes-AMG GT3, Christodoulou is optimistic of being in contention for the top places yet again, despite renewed commitment from other major manufacturers.

“We’ve got more knowledge of what the car is capable of now, so we just have to use that to our advantage and hit the ground running on the Nordschleife,” he continued.

“The VLN and the Nürburgring 24 hours is getting stronger and tougher every year, the manufacturers are getting behind it more and more as the event keeps growing. All the manufacturers are going to be fighting to take away our title from last year, so it’s getting harder and harder but I’m looking forward to the challenge.

“We just need to make sure that we have clean races up to the 24 Hours and prepare ourselves as best as we can.
In addition to the winner’s trophy, Christodoulou’s triumph also earned the right to have the prized No. 1 adorning his car at the 24 Hours this year and is determined that it will not be the last time.

“Running the number 1 on the car for the 24 Hours will be really special, obviously it’s not very often that you get to run a number that you’ve won previously,” he added.

“I’ll definitely be proud representing it and hopefully we’ll be able to run it again next year, that’s the plan!”

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On his first appearance at the race since 2011, the 27-year-old AMG driver enjoyed a trouble-free run in the No. 33 Riley Motorsports – Team AMG Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Jeroen Bleekemolen, Ben Keating and Mario Farnbacher, marking a successful debut for the car in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The team led a total of 108 laps and ultimately finished just 5.6 seconds off the winner at the conclusion of 24 hours of gruelling racing.

Despite coming narrowly missing out on his second 24 hour race victory of the last 12 months, the 2016 Nurburgring 24 Hours winner could not be unhappy with the result.

“I suppose when you’re able to lead the race for a period of time, you convince yourself more and more that you could pull this off, but if I’d been told at the start of the week that we would end up on the podium then I would have been really excited,” Christodoulou said.

“To finish any 24 hour race is a great challenge and I’m extremely proud. We definitely got the maximum out of the car this weekend and as a first time for AMG doing the 24 Hours of Daytona, we definitely made a good impression.”

The team started from 19th on the grid with a triple stint from Keating, who was also scheduled to drive a Prototype Challenge car during the event.

After Bleekemolen and Farnbacher took the car into the night and Keating returned to the wheel to complete his mandatory driving time, Christodoulou finally climbed aboard for his first stint after midnight.

Cool ambient temperatures and unrelenting rain meant for conditions that were far from ideal. Nevertheless, the Briton was immediately on-pace and gained three positions when racing resumed after a lengthy caution period.

With the help of his spotter, watching every move from the top of the Daytona International Speedway’s enormous grandstands, Christodoulou advanced to second place during the course of his double-stint, before handing back to Farnbacher around 3 am.

“It was pretty unusual, normally I’m in the car pretty early on but the priority was to get Jeroen, Ben and Mario through the car, because they’re the guys fighting for the championship so they needed to do a minimum of five hours each,” he explained.

“I went straight into the night shift. The weather conditions were pretty horrible, but we made a setup change and I had a lot of confidence in the car, so I just went full attack.

“Straight away at turn one I was able to send it around the outside of about three cars and really get stuck in, so that was great fun.”

Farnbacher took the lead after the restart, but the several long yellows that followed due to the worsening conditions meant that the chasing pack remained in touch.

After another stint from Bleekemolen, Christodoulou took over and continued in the lead for the duration, despite having to cope with tricky intermediate conditions as the circuit transitioned from wet to dry.

“We were able to maintain our lead for quite a while and then I was back in late morning as it started to get sunny again,” he continued.

“I did another double stint and managed to bring the car in around 30 seconds ahead of second place, which I was extremely happy with.

“Our car seemed to be extremely strong in the mixed conditions when the track was at it’s most difficult. One of the AMG’s strong points is how easy it is on the tires, so in the drying condition with the wets on I was able to extend the lead before handing over to my team-mates and getting a little bit of sleep!”

With Christodoulou’s job done, Bleekemolen was tasked with bringing the car to the finish and crossed the line in third.

“The car was great, it handled really well, although we weren’t as strong as some of the other competitors on the banking, so at that point we had to use the slipstream to make sure we were on their bumpers to attack in the infield,” Christodoulou explained.

“A great overtaking place in the wet was around the outside of turn one, but it’s definitely easier to overtake on the straights if you’ve got that opportunity.

“The team have only had the car for a few weeks and the first time they got to Daytona with this car was a few weeks ago for the Roar, so we didn’t have much time to prep for this race. I think under the circumstances, everyone did an amazing job.

“It was great to work with Bill and his team, they’re extremely professional in everything they do, and attention to detail is exactly what you need in these kinds of races.”

Having come so close to winning a Rolex, Christodoulou is eager to return next year and finish the job.

“For me it was an honour to be selected out of all the AMG drivers to come and do this event, it was really exciting to be back in the States,” he added.

“The car ran faultlessly and we all had a clean race, none of us had any contact and the thing was pretty much unscratched at the end, which is exactly what you want during a 24 hour race.

I’d like to thank Bill and his team for all their hard work, as well as my team-mates Ben, Jeroen and Mario for trusting me to be a part of their team. If I was given the opportunity to do it again next year, I’d love to do it!”

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The 27-year-old AMG Customer Sports driver finished sixth in the GT class on his only previous appearance at Daytona in 2011, where partnered Jonathan Bomarito, John Edwards and Sylvain Tremblay in a Speedsource Mazda RX-8.

After five years away, Christodoulou is excited to make his comeback with Bill Riley’s successful outfit, which has won Daytona ten times as a constructor and developed the SRT Viper that took Kuno Wittmer to the 2014 IMSA GTLM title.

Christodoulou will share the No. 33 Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Mario Farnbacher, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Ben Keating, Who co-drove to victory at Daytona in a Riley-run Viper in 2015.

“I’m really excited to be given this opportunity at Riley, I’m honoured to be driving for them and representing the new Mercedes-AMG GT3 for the first time at Daytona,” he said.

“It’s great to go back after all these years, especially because I made my GT debut in America back in 2010 and Daytona was also my first experience of 24 hour racing in 2011. I’ve been in the same car as Jeroen previously in the Dubai 24 Hours, so it’s going to be great – we’ve got an extremely strong line-up and I’m looking forward to going back out there and seeing how things have changed. It’s like Christmas has come early!”

The race has changed significantly since 2011, with the merger between Grand-Am and the American Le Mans Series bringing together four distinct classes – Prototype (P), Prototype Challenge (PC), GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD).

Christodoulou’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 will be entered in a strong GTD class, where it will face competition from Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche, as well as new cars from Lexus and Acura. He will test for the first time at the Roar before the 24 in January (6-8) to get reacquainted with the circuit and car with which he won at the Nürburgring on the car’s first attempt.

“I’ve been in a variety of races over the last few years, ranging from some of the smaller cars up to GT4s and GT3s, so being on track with faster cars is nothing I haven’t had to deal with before and I don’t believe it should be a problem,” Christodoulou continued.

“Obviously the prototypes are extremely quick, so it’s just about staying clean and making sure we are on the lead lap in the final few hours. We’ll just be running our own race and making sure we’re in the right position at the right time. With all the safety cars, there’s a greater chance of being on the lead lap by the end of the race compared to some of the 24 hour races in Europe, which should make it very exciting!”

Christodoulou is also looking forward to getting reacquainted with the unique atmosphere at American motorsport venues, particularly at a time when Europe is still in winter hibernation.

IMSA WeatherTech Series testing, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, FL, December , 2016. (Photo by Brian Cleary/bcpix.com)

“The approach for Daytona is essentially the same as any other race, I still need to make sure that I’m doing my training over the Christmas period and going easy on the turkey!” he said. “I’ll be going out to the Roar, so it will be great to meet the team there and that will give me time to get to know them and to get myself prepared.

“In America the fans are a lot closer and they can interact a lot more, it makes it really fun being involved with all that. One of the other main advantages of Daytona is you can go on the grandstands and pretty much see all of the track, and you really hear the roar of the car echo off all four walls, which creates a special atmosphere that you don’t see anywhere else. I can’t wait to get back there and experience it again.”

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Showing his familiarity with the former German Grand Prix venue, the 2016 Nürburgring 24 Hours winner powered through hanging fog to qualify the Team Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 he shared with Hubert Haupt and Andreas Simonsen eighth in the 54-car field.

With several cars falling afoul of the tricky conditions, red flags duly brought the session to an early conclusion. Although Christodoulou believed he could have improved his time on the drying track without the interruption, his competitive banker lap was enough to put him on the fourth row of the grid, their best qualifying result of the season.

Haupt managed to avoid the customary opening lap shenanigans and brought the car back in a solid tenth, before handing over to Simonsen. However, an untimely Full Course Yellow allowed three cars that were running behind him to pit and come out ahead, demoting the 27-year-old to tenth. With course vehicles on the circuit to repair barrier damage, the Safety Car was then called on, which bunched the pack together.

Christodoulou had recovered two positions to eighth after the race returned to green, but with just ten minutes to go, he was punted from behind by a Bentley and forced off the track at the Dunlop Curve. The ensuing puncture forced the Briton to the pits for an unscheduled stop and dropped him out of the points to an unrepresentative 18^th.

“It’s a really frustrating way to end the season when points were on the cards,” said Christodoulou. “The Jaguar running in front of me had just hit one of the bollards and had smoke pouring out of its front wheel, so I was lining up a move when the Bentley stuck his nose up the inside and put me sideways on the kerb. I tried to keep going, but I got a tyre pressure warning and had to come into the pits. It’s very disappointing, but our pace in qualifying was extremely strong and once we were running in clear air, we had good pace.

“For one reason or another we’ve had a lot of bad luck this year, but it only makes you appreciate the good results more when you do get them. We’ve improved a lot of things on the car during the season and it’s been really rewarding to see that progress at every race. I’d like to say a big thank you to Team Black Falcon, Hubert and Andreas for all their hard work this year.”

Christodoulou has another opportunity to set the record straight at the VLN 9 on October 8.

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The team’s race came to a dramatic end inside the final hour when Simonsen was collected by an out-of-control rival during a heavy rain shower. Fortunately, the Swede emerged with only minor bruising, a testament to the strength of the new-for-2016 Mercedes-AMG GT3.
It was a poor reward for a strong drive from the pitlane after engine problems were detected during Thursday practice that required it to be changed.
The engine change also meant the No. 57 team missed the entirety of the pre-qualifying and qualifying sessions, only emerging mid-way through night-qualifying, which was used primarily as an extended test session and to get acclimatised to the challenge of driving the 7 kilometer Spa-Francorchamps circuit in full darkness.

Second in the Saturday warmup hinted at what might have been possible in qualifying, but starting from the back would consign them to playing a waiting game as others hit trouble.
Despite two punctures during Hubert’s opening stint, this strategy was beginning to pay off as back-to-back double stints through the night from Simonsen and Christodoulou elevated them into the top-five by half-distance.
However, lady luck was not on the side of Nürburgring 24 Hour winner Christodoulou on this occasion, as Simonsen reported a problem with the wishbone caused by a loose bolt. Unfortunately, the problem was more severe than it first appeared and meant several laps were lost while the car sat in the garage.

“We went back-to-back doubles between Andreas and I for a few hours, and it was all looking great,” Christodoulou said. “Around the half-way point we were up to fourth, our pace was good and we were thinking that a podium was in range, but unfortunately something started to rattle its way loose when Andreas was in the car and he had a bit of play in the steering, so we came in and fixed it in the pitlane. Unfortunately we then had to come back in again, which dropped us out of the top 20 within a matter of a few minutes.
“It’s a real shame how our race ended after all the hard work the Black Falcon guys put in to get everything ready, but Mercedes-AMG build a strong car and Andreas was able to get out under his own steam after such a big impact.”
Whilst the end result was highly disappointing after such a competitive showing, Christodoulou was pleased with the way the team overcame their early setbacks and thrust themselves into contention, which bodes well for the final round of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup at the Nürburgring in September.
“I was happy with the performances of everybody on our car, all of my stints were extremely clean and I was able to make good progress,” he added. “The crew executed everything very well at the pitstops and our strategy was on point as well, but sadly the final result didn’t reflect the work we put into it. Hopefully we can set that right on our return to the Nürburgring!”

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It is the biggest win of the 26-year-old’s career so far and his first since becoming an official AMG driver over the winter.

After 24 hours of hard racing around the most difficult circuit in the world, Christodoulou shared the top step of the podium with 2013 winner Bernd Schneider, Manuel Metzger and Maro Engel, who overtook the AMG-Team HTP Motorsport no. 29 driven by Christian Hohenadel on the 134th and last racing lap.

“It all came down to whether we were going to do an extra lap or not,” Christodoulou explained. “We had the fuel to do it, but we were uncertain whether the other car did, so we had to keep the pressure on.

“But once we realised that the opportunity was there and we could force an extra lap out of the race, of course we went for it. Maro drove his socks off and was hunting him down, he saw the gap and he went for it. Those last two laps went from wanting the race to go on longer to carry on the fight, to the checkered flag not coming soon enough! The whole thing feels a bit surreal, I shouted that hard when we got the lead, I think I’ve lost my voice!”

Adverse weather conditions are almost to be expected at the Nürburgring, but few could have predicted the extent to which it would arrive in the first hour of the race. After starting 17th, Christodoulou had made his way up to tenth in the first two laps and passed the no. 2 Audi for ninth through Fuchsruhe,just as the rain started to hit between Adenauer Forst and Kesselchen.

The vast majority of the field including Christodoulou stayed out on the slick tyres they had started with, only to find hailstones the size of golfballs and rivers of water at the fast left-hander at Schweudenkreutz on the following lap. As several of his rivals aquaplaned off the road, Christodoulou quickly took stock of the situation and slowed down, crucially managing to keep the car on the road until the red flags were thrown. at you don’t catch any of them at a bad point.

Christodoulou’s next stint came at around 11:30pm as the track began to dry. Christodoulou reported a vibration a few laps into his stint and pitted for a new set of tyres, which put the AMG-Team Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 off-strategy withAMG-Team HTP Motorsport and would allow them to run longer in the final stint.

After a few hours rest while Engel charged up to second, Christodoulou returned to the cockpit as daylight made a welcome return and on Lap 92 set the fastest lap of the race at that point as he battled over the lead with the no. 88 Haribo Racing Team-AMG Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Exiting the car with around five hours to go, all he could do was watch as Metzger and Schneider completed their stints, before Engel took over for the finish.

“I think every driver gets nervous before a race, but watching from the pits I was falling apart starting to realise we might pull this off,” he said. “The last two laps are always chaos because if you don’t cross the checkered flag you aren’t classified, so suddenly with five minutes to go there must have been 20 cars that shot out of the pitlane, so you just hope that you don’t catch any of them at a bad point.

“In the end my team-mates did a stunning job, every stint they did was full attack. The boys from AMG-Team Black Falcon executed all of their pitstops perfectly, which is something that the team has always put a lot of work into. For Black Falcon to win it a second time, so soon after the first one in 2013 shows just how strong they are.

“I’d like to dedicate this one to Sean Edwards because this was the last 24 Hour race that he raced and won, with Black Falcon a few years ago. I only met him a few times, but when I watched him win here, I remember thinking ‘one day that’s where I want to be, I want to be fighting at the front of this race’. I feel very fortunate to have been given thatopportunity and would like to thank everybody at AMG-Team Black Falcon and everyone involved for all their hard work.”

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