Mixed conditions and happy winners in Kaunas Grand Prix

The third round of the Baltic Touring Car Championship in the legendary Kaunas race track in this weekend. The famous, fast track and the mixed conditions where every class had one completely wet race sure made very interesting and exciting battles on the track and valuable points were shared for the standings. 85 racers and teams in BaTCC series from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, France and Brasil and 28 in the Lithuanian time attack series challenged the race track on weekend .

As usually the most anticipated were the BMW 325 cup races where 26 participants entered the race. Home town hero Aurimas Mistautas from Dream 2 Drive took the pole position on Saturday night, followed by his teammate Julius Kirsis. While championship leader Ricards Subeckis was third and Mantas Jasiulevicius 4th.

In the race Subeckis had a great start overtaking Kirsis in the first corners and in one lap it was Mistautas turn to give position to Subeckis, who built a lead of around one second and managed the gap to following group – Mistautas, Grigaitis, Kirsis and Leo Messenger who slowly took opponents one by one and managed to finish second followed by Grigaitis, Mistautas and Kirsis.

Race 2 was started by Paulius Urbonavicius from pole and the followed by Mistautas, Messenger, Kirsis and Subeckis. Mistautas quickly gained positions, took the lead and was followed by Messenger, and with some small gap Subeckis and Urbonavicius. Leo Messenger managed to catch and pass Mistautas, but Subeckis made a fantastic last lap – overtook both Mistautas and Messenger, but was later penalized with a +5 sec penalty from the stewards for an accident in the earlier laps and was classified 4th in race 2.

Overall first place goes to last year champ – Leo Messenger from Rode Racing, second place to Ricards Subeckis(Jurmala/Papas saciksu komanda) and thid to Aurimas Mistautas (Dream 2 Drive). The fastest Master of the weekend was Julius Kirsis, second Algirdas Gelzinis and third Darius Gaidulionis. Fastest rookie – Eividas Sitavicius, Lady – Erika Arkusauskaite, and Gentleman – Olivier Villeneuve.

Great emotions and racing were witnessed in BTC2 class, where local Lithuanians were preparing hard to stop Simo Lind and Kairo Kallas, who was the reason why it did not happen in Race 1! Kairo showed he is a proper rain master and dominated the Race 1 in rainy conditions, leaving behind Kasparas Skyrelis and Andrius Keblys. Race 2 belongs to Mr Keblys who managed to hold the lead after red flag restart and keeping his teammate Skyrelis right behind him. Third place to another Lithuanian Tadas Petukauskas. In sum of two races – first Andrius Keblys, second Kasparas Skyrelis and third Kairo Kallas.

BTC1 class belonged to Lithuanian – Audrius Liutkevicius, first in both races means the highest step of the podium. 2nd and 3rd places to Latvian drivers – Maris Bulans and Lelde Jukama.

ABC Race fully enjoyed the wet racing and had a lot of fun on the track. Race 1 belonged to Roberts Ozolins, but he and the standings leader was penalized with 5 sec penalty and victory went to Mareks Matvejevs who was victorious also in Race 2 followed once again by Ozolins. Arturs Danilevskis was third in race 2, gathering enough points to secure third also in event overall. Rookie category victory for yet another time goes to Nauris Agafonovs, second to Sandis Laube and third to Karlis Skirmanis!

V1600 had a proper carousel in the races. In a very wet race 1 victory went to Ragnar Simuland, just hanging on to keep Arvids Rumbens behind. Viesturs Ozols finished in third. Race 2 belonged to Viesturs Ozols who managed to keep Raivis Meilands in a heavy battle. While third place went to Ragnar Simuland. In overall – first Viesturs Ozols, second Ragnar Simuland and third – Arvids Rumbens.

Nankang Endurance Academy race had 20 teams from Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. Pole position belonged to Reimpex-Capkauskas Autocentras team, followed by Nanosun by Tarzanija Racing. Second row went to Pols Racing and HEMI Racing by Statomenas. All Lithuanian teams. First two laps of the race was calm, but third lap was red flagged as Diesel Power had big accident, the driver is OK! Race resumed without major accidents and during the two hours, the fastest and endurable cars, teams and drivers were determined.

The overall race victory in the Nankang 2h Endurance race went to #AB4L team(Tomas Jatkevicius/Kasparas Skyrelis), second to another Lithuanian team BMW325cup by Gatavas.lt(Ramunas Grigaitis/Darius Gaidulionos) and third place to Autoradvilis(Dovidas Najus/Mantas Neverdauskas).

BGT AM category win was taken in a dominant fashion by Reimpex-Capkauskas Autocentras team, while second went to Nanosun by Tarzanija Racing. BTC4 was won by HEMI Racing by Statomenas. BTC3 class had the most entries and the biggest fight for victory – the best were Autoradvilis, followed by two Estonian teams – RS Racing Team and Lind Racing. BTC2 – team #AB4L, while BTC1 had a threeway battle where the fastest team on the Sunday was RSparts Motorsport from Estonia, second – MKM Racing and third – LDV Racing. BMW 325 CUP is always close and this time it was no exception – a well deserved victory to BMW325cup by Gatavas.lt, second to Papa’s saciksu komanda/GD Auto and third to KTK Racing Division.

The next and penultimate round of the Baltic Touring Car Championship will take place on August 17-20 in Porsche Ring track in Parnu Estonia where the BaTCC series will be joined by friends from Poland Championship.

Full session results: https://speedhive.mylaps.com/livetiming/F029EA4DD048CB8C-2147483729