Mercedes-Benz: ATLANTA, Georgia – May 6, 2021 – The Customer Racing Teams have reached another milestone in the history of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport. Richard and Sam Neary (both GBR) from the ABBA Racing team secured their 500th overall victory in the Customer Racing Program in the British GT Cup Championship with their Mercedes-AMG GT3 last weekend. Just a few hours later, Antonelli MotorSport achieved the 501st race win in the Italian GT championship. This remarkable number reflects the extraordinary reliability of the sports cars from Affalterbach. So far, 233 overall victories have been achieved with the Mercedes-AMG GT3, 183 with its predecessor, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, and 85 with the Mercedes-AMG GT4.
The success story of the Customer Racing Teams began on October 16, 2010. In the earlier VLN series (currently Nürburgring Endurance Series), BLACK FALCON with Thomas Jäger and Christopher Haase achieved their first overall victory in only the second race of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. The SLS AMG GT3 was the first racing car developed by Mercedes-AMG itself and formed the basis for the Customer Racing Program. The demand from racing teams for this program increased steadily. The success soon set in on racetracks around the world, with further milestones after the first win in 2010.
The 100th overall victory in 2013 was of particular importance. With first place in the 24-hour race in Spa, the HTP Motorsport team with drivers Maximilian Buhk, Maximilian Götz and Bernd Schneider completed the Grand Slam of all important GT3 endurance classics. Previously, customer racing teams with the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 had already won the 24-hour race in Dubai, the 12-hour race in Bathurst and the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring within a year.
The most spectacular of the 500 race victories is without a doubt the quadruple victory of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 at the ADAC Zurich 24h race Nürburgring in 2016. In the first year of the Mercedes-AMG GT3, the quartet of Adam Christodoulou, Maro Engel, Manuel Metzger and Bernd Schneider drove in the competition on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife for BLACK FALCON to victory. HTP Motorsport, the HARIBO Racing Team and another BLACK FALCON car in positions two to four complemented the historic success of Mercedes-AMG.
Historical 1-2 in Daytona at the beginning of 2020
The Mercedes-AMG GT4 also makes a significant contribution to the success story of the Customer Racing Program. The historic triple victory at the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge at Daytona International Speedway in January 2020 stands out from the total of 85 GT4 victories. Customer racing takes place on this legendary racetrack in the USA
The teams also achieved another remarkable success in the 2021 motorsport season. The 1: 2 for the Mercedes-AMG GT3 from WINWARD Racing and SunEnergy1 Racing in the Rolex 24 in Daytona was the first GT3 victory for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport in this famous race.
It was the customer racing team’s first race win in the still fresh motorsport season. The youngest have so far been achieved by the ABBA Racing and Antonelli MotorSport teams last weekend. In the GT Cup championship, Richard Neary and his son Sam Neary drove from second place on the grid to victory in the second of the two 50-minute sprint races at Brands Hatch on Saturday. With the fourth overall victory in the sixth race of the season for the duo with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 with starting number 88, the magic number of 500 overall victories was achieved. A day later, Antonelli MotorSport was the first in the Italian GT championship. Bar Baruch (ISR) and Luca Segù (ITA) won the second race of the weekend in Monza with the # 90 Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Richard Neary is one of the drivers with the most overall wins. His 20 victories are only inferior by the 27 victories for Mercedes-AMG driver Maximilian Buhk. Among the teams, BLACK FALCON, one of the teams from the earliest days, tops the list with 25 overall wins, followed by Erebus Motorsport (24) and the AKKA ASP Team (22).
Stefan Wendl, Head of Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing: “500 overall victories, a number that makes us very proud. Many thanks to all teams and drivers who have contributed to this success with their achievements and their efforts on the racetrack! It is the result of the continuous expansion of our customer racing program over the years. The fact that the 500 and 501 victories were achieved in Great Britain and Italy also shows our ambition to fight for victories and championships in all national and international racing series. It has always been our goal to offer all customer teams on every race track in the world the best possible service. At the same time, the number 500 also means an obligation for the future. So that many more milestones can follow after this milestone, we are continuously developing the program and our support. “
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