Baltic Touring Car Championship ready to go in new season.
The 2024 Baltic Touring Car Championship (BaTCC) will start with the opening round from 3rd to 5th May in Parnu’s “Porsche ring”, the best race track in Northern Europe. Also, several changes have been made to Sporting and Technical Regulations with an aim to make circuit racing more accessible and budget friendly.
“We wish to continue the successful development of circuit racing in the Baltic States, which is proved by 180 participants across all the 2023 season and to have even more people involved in the sport we all love. We have made some adjustments to the rules, so the beginning of circuit racing is more accessible and cost-friendlier in long term. Also, the Baltic Endurance Championship format is revised to welcome more new teams in the paddock to try the essence of Endurance racing. We expect an exciting 2024 circuit racing season filled with good emotions,” says BaTCC organizer Andis Meilands.
In the most competitive Autosport discipline in the Baltic States, the BMW 325 CUP will be changes to driver lineups and technical regulations. As the current champion, French man Leo Messenger will not participate, the champion’s crown is vacant for the next king of BMWs. New racers are expected from the Baltic countries, Finland and Poland. As for technical rules, new suspension set is allowed to be used and it is made specifically for BMW 325 CUP cars. All cars now must have one ECU programme, the brake disc manufacturer is free and limited by max size, and as a coolant only water (with additives) is allowed. The subclasses for 2024 remain – Masters (drivers born 1984 or later), Gentlemen (born 1974 or later), Ladies and Rookies remain. One of the biggest changes is that 8 best results out of 10 races will go in the season standings to determine the winners. The same applies to all other BaTCC sprint classes.
To ensure simpler and budget friendly first steps in circuit racing, ABC Race class will now have BaTCC status and will go in races together with V1600 cars. In both those small touring cars classes there is special coefficient of power / weight ratio to ensure parity on the racetrack and thus nice battles between the pilots.
In the Baltic 4h Endurance championship there are slight changes to the racing format and in the class divisions. Every team will have to have 5 mandatory pit stops and pit stop time will have minimum limit, from the time the car enters pit lane and exit – three minutes. This will ensure more safety and less resources needed during the pit stops. Changes have also been made to class divisions – Factory built and powerful race cars with low weight will race in “GT PRO” class. Current and former TCR class cars, GT4 class and philosophically and technically similar cars will compete in the “GT AM” class, while “BTC4” class will field touring cars up to 4000 ccm and “BTC3” cars up to 3000 ccm. All classes, except “BTC3”, must use Hankook slick tires. “BTC3” class participants have an option between “Hankook” slick tires or “Nankang” semi slick tires.
The work and preparation don’t stop for modified touring car classes – “BTC1”, “BTC2” and “BTC3”, where some newcomers as well as seasoned veterans are welcomed to join. And in GT cars BaTCC the situation is the same – with some very good and fast newcomers and long-time veterans returning to battle on tracks once again.
The Nankang 2h Endurance has earned their popularity among racers and teams as the best option to have the most track time for reasonable budget and option to share the costs with other driver. The championship will keep the same format – a 2h long race with mandatory 5 min pitstop and usage of Nankang tires.
Baltic Touring Car Championship is a circuit racing series that unites under one flag the circuit racing racers from the Baltic States, Finland and Poland and national championships of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia with cooperation from ASNs, providing high level competitions from organizing and sportive side. Various racing formats and classes are in offer for every enthusiast. Cars ranging from 1400, 1600, 2000, 3000, 4000 ccm, to BMW 325 CUP mono class high powered factory or custom made cars, that all are eligible to compete in sprint racing(10-14 laps distance), two or four hour endurance races.
For events in Estonia(in May) and Latvia BaTCC series will be joined by Formula Historic enthusiasts. While in August BaTCC will host the whole Polish Championship series.
2024 Baltic Touring Car Championship calendar:
- Estonia, Porsche Ring, May 3-5.
- Latvia, Bikernieki, June 14-15.
- Lithuania, Nemuno Ziedas, July 6-7.
- Estonia, Porsche Ring, August 16-18.
- Poland, Tor Poznan, September 20-22.
