The star of Saturday’s race – BMW 325 Cup

1^st race day of “Henkell Grand Prix“ was special not only because of the extraordinary fights in BEC 6H, but also because of the incredible number of participants  in BMW 325 Cup series. Of course, if there are a lot of participants, no doubt it is going to be plenty of heat and incredible pushes and twists in track during the competition. The grid in this race was filled with 38 participants from all Baltic countries, fighting for points not only in overall, but in national classifications, too.

Short review of amazing BMW 325 Cup battles

Tendency, that grid positions gained during qualifying sessions are quite similar to the result of the races, were verified and confirmed in this competition. Robertas Kupčikas has started in the front of really long grid, after assuring pole positon during qualifying with a lap time of 1.30,485 minute. This Lithuanian racer had some technical issues during first event in Riga, as this round was quite successful during both runs. As for the 2^nd place after first half of the competition, it was taken by another Lithuanian guy Edvinas Žadeikis, who was behind Robertas only with few tiny parts of the second. During this run, 3^rd place was taken by young and really fast Latvian racer Valters Zviedris.

First run did not pass without hot battles and incidents in the track, at the same time, forcing penalties towards athletes from race control. Sadly, all the mistakes make influence the final results. Because of the incideents and push ups in the track, some of the athletes were penalized adding some seconds to their driving time: Gints Dzenis (10 seconds penalty), Ramūnas Čapkauskas (5 seconds penalty after incident with Artjoms Koclamazasvili), Mantas Jasiulevičius (5 seconds penalty after collision with Krisjanis Oskerko car). Quite well pace and result shown by Toms Berzins was effected with 10 seconds penalty for overtaking in the yellow flag zone. Finally, after all the accidents, collisions and technique caprices even 6 participants have withdrawn from the competition too early. As for the three fastest racers, they remained the same, as at the beginning of the race after qualifying session.

During 2^nd run, battles for the victory were even more intense and heat mixes with tensions have influenced the drivers and their technique. Even two racers were penalized for the false start already at the beginning of this race (Renars Proskurins  and Toms Berzins, both penalized adding 20 seconds). As for strong crashes during the race, Renars Proskurins result was annulled and he already received the warning for acts in a track.  Martins Lapins was warned for his acts during the competition, as Kristo Krinpus was less lucky and got penalty of 20 seconds. Same penalty was assigned to  Edgars Bundzis, too. After all the incidents, accidents and crashes, only 29 cars and participants have classified in this race. However, Robertas Kupčikas has kept the leader chair up until the end of the competition, 2^nd place was taken by Valters Zviedris and Edvinas Žadeikis showed up on the 3^rd step of the podium. When both runs were taken into consideration willing to find out the overall, winners, the que of the fastest drivers maintained the same.

Just like BEC 6H participants, all these guys will meet in the same track at the end of the August, on 21-22.