2015 ENEOS 1000 kilometrų lenktynės

2015 ENEOS 1000 kilometru lenktynes (ENEOS 1000 km race) was a 16th running of ENEOS 1000 kilometrų lenktynės, a touring car and GT endurance racing event held in Lithuania, at Palanga circuit , 2 kilometers away from resort town Palanga on July 16–18, 2015.

Race was won by Jonas Gelžinis, Ignas Gelžinis and Tautvydas Barštys who drove for Juta-KG Group team. Nerijus Dagilis, Nemunas Dagilis and Robertas Kupčikas finished second for Balpol-15 min powered by Oktanas Racing and Steve Vanbellingen, Erik Qvick, Dirk Vanrompuy and Tom Vanrompuy took final podium position for Belgian Qvick Motors team.[1]

Background

For the first practice session, all teams were divided into two groups. 2013 ENEOS 1000 kilometrų lenktynės winners General Financing-Autopaslauga by Pitlane confirmed their favourite status, as Jeroen Bleekemolen went fastest in first practice session with a laptime of 1:12.796. Juta-KG Group and MOPTRANS-Club PORT by JR Motorsport also impressed with their speed, as they completed top three.

Algirdai Racing Team with Aquila CR1 was fastest in other group, but slower than Porsche of General Financing-Autopaslauga by Pitlane. Ramūnas Čapkauskas of Algirdai Racing Team damaged his car in the first practice session, but the team managed to repair it before the start of second practice session, where he showed best lap time of 1:12.920

"Blue Ghost Racing Team" driver Modestas Jakas crashed his Toyota Celica heavily in the second practice session. Luckily, he wasn't injured, but his team was forced to withdraw from the race.

Qualifying

Jeroen Bleekemolen, who drove for General Financing - Autopaslauga by Pitlane, qualified on pole with best lap time of 1:09.679. Jonas Gelžinis from Juta Racing was second, less than half a second behind Jeroen Bleekemolen (Lap time 1:10.090). Algirdai Racing Team's Ramūnas Čapkauskas took third position, driving Aquila CR1 prototype (Lap Time 1:10.156).

Qualifying was red-flagged several times. At the end of the first phase of qualifying, Daniel Colembie went off the track and heavily damaged his BMW M4. His JR Motorsports teammate Simas Juodviršis also crashed, this time in top 10 shootout. Team was unable to rebuild both cars before the race, therefore Daniel Colembie and his co-drivers Michael Verhagen and Ward Sluys withdrawn from the race.

Some drivers were unable to improve their lap time due to crash of Simas Juodviršis, as qualification was cancelled early. Defending race winners, Liqui Moly Racing Team Lithuania, did not advance to top 10 shootout: Kazimieras Vasiliauskas qualified in 12th position.

Qualification: Top 10 shootout results

Pos Class No Team Drivers Vehicle Lap time
1 GT 52 General Financing - Autopaslauga by Pitlane Jeroen Bleekemolen Porsche Carrera GT3 Cup 1:09.679
2 GT 71 Juta-KG Group Jonas Gelžinis Porsche Carrera GT3 Cup +0.411
3 X1 7 Algirdai Racing Team Ramūnas Čapkauskas Aquila SR1 +0.477
4 GT 15 Balpol-15min powered by Oktanas Racing Robertas Kupčikas Porsche Carrera GT3 Cup +2.165
5 X1 45 MOPTRANS-Club PORT by JR Motorsport Simas Juodviršis BMW M4 +2.168
6 GT 8 RaceTech Marius Slaboševičius BMW M3 GT2 +2.616
7 A3000+ 21 Palanga SPA hotel by Qvick Motors Erik Qvick BMW M3 GTR +5.509
8 GT 51 Finance Group – GSR Rokas Steponavičius Ginetta G50 GT4 +6.754
9 D 92 RIMO Martynas Samuitis BMW 335D +7.462
10 X1 19 MOJO Lounge Racing by JR Motorsport Daniel Colembie BMW M4 no time

Race

Jeroen Bleekemolen led early stages of the race, as Jonas Gelžinis and Robertas Kupčikas closely followed him in second and third. Ramūnas Čapkauskas retired from the race after only 50 laps due electronic failure of his Aquila CR1 prototype. 70 laps into the race unexpected heavy rain caught many fast drivers, including Dainius Matijošaitis with BMW M4, Edvinas Arkušauskas with BMW E90 EDVA, Marius Steponavičius with BMW M3 GT2 and Arūnas Mrazauskas with Lexus IS-F, who crashed heavily. Only Mrazauskas was able to continue the race after lengthy repairs in pitlane, as all other drivers retired. Due to crashes, safety car was deployed several times.

Rain stopped only 100 laps later. As the race track began to dry, two race-leading Porsches took a gamble and pitted for slick tyres. However, the risk didn't paid off as the rain started to fall again. Both cars stayed on track on slick tyres as Jeroen Bleekemolen and Ignas Gelžinis hoped that the rain will stop soon. However, this was a crucial mistake for Bleekemolen, who missed a breaking point on the wet track and crashed into the barriers. He managed to return to pitlane for repairs, but lost 14 laps and the race lead in the process.

Battle for the lead continued between Juta-KG Group and Balpol-15min powered by Oktanas Racing, as the two teams were separated by only a few seconds during majority of the second part of the race. However, 30 laps until the end of the race Nerijus Dagilis ran out of fuel and was forced to stop at the track. His Porsche was pulled back to pitlane, but after this mistake his team lost 6 laps and all chances to win a race. That left Ignas Gelžinis comfortably in front. For the final stint he handed the car over to Tautvydas Barštys, who easily crossed the finish line in first place. This was first win for Tautvydas Barštys in 1000 kilometrų lenktynės, second win for Ignas Gelžinis, and a record-breaking fifth win for Jonas Gelžinis.

Former Formula 1 drover Michael Bleekemolen and his co-driver Rene Steenmetz was running fifth as the race was coming to an end. However, after mechanical problems with his Renault Clio he was forced to retire from the race when only six laps were remaining. In the process, he dropped to sixth place, as all other drivers were six laps behind.

Race results

Class winners in bold.

Pos Class No Team Drivers Vehicle Laps
1 GT 71 Juta-KG Group Jonas Gelžinis
Ignas Gelžinis
Tautvydas Barštys
Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 373
2 GT 15 Balpol-15min powered by Oktanas Racing Nerijus Dagilis
Nemunas Dagilis
Robertas Kupčikas
Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 369
3 A3000+ 21 Palanga SPA hotel by Qvick Motors Steve Vanbellingen
Erik Qvick
Dirk Vanrompuy
Tom Vanrompuy
BMW M3 GTR 363
4 GT 51 Finance Group – GSR Arūnas Granskas
Rokas Steponavičius
Ernesta Globytė
Eugenijus Misiūra
Ginetta G50 GT4 352
5 A3000+ 27 Bauer Racing Ramūnas Čapkauskas
Linas Adomavičius
Žilvinas Juršys
Tomas Šipkauskas
BMW M3 350
6 A3000 25 Team Bleekemolen Michael Bleekemolen
Rene Steenmetz
Renault Clio 340
7 GT 5 Luktarna Giedrius Notkus
Remigijus Devainis
Yuri Pukhkyy
BMW M3 340
8 D 18 ALWARK-Kaukas Kęstutis Binkauskas
Karolis Šikšnelis
Marius Masiulionis
Igoris Ivanovas
Volkswagen Golf 334
9 GT 52 General Financing - Autopaslauga by Pitlane Benediktas Vanagas
Jeroen Bleekemolen
Sebastiaan Bleekemolen
Porsche Carrera GT3 Cup 333
10 A3000 54 Autoverslas Racing Team Valdemaras Zakarauskas
Rimgaudas Statnickas
Andrejus Teras
Vytenis Gulbinas
Audi A4 329
11 A2000 55 Autoklubas AB ALYTAUS CHEMIJA Karolis Blėdis
Arūnas Lekavičius
Tomas Isiūnas
Renault Clio Sport 329
12 A2000 14 SIUSKPIGIAU.LT – ZAIBELIS Ignas Palaima
Ignas Brusokas
Mantas Gasiūnas
Honda Integra Type R 328
13 A2000 23 JP Sport – Transprofus Jonas Pipiras
Mantas Morkis
Jonas Paukštė
Gintaras Morkevičius
Honda Civic Type R 328
14 GT 1 Skinest Rail Kaminera Arūnas Tuma
Tomas Petraitis
Oleg Ossinovski
Mikolai Sobol
BMW M3 328
15 D 36 Cor Euser Racing Hal Prewitt
Jim Briody
Cor Euser
BMW M3 326
16 A3000 24 Alfa Romeo klubas Rimvydas Agurkis
Giedrius Čenkus
Alminas Malaiška
Alfa Romeo GT 326
17 A2000 90 MK Technika Rally Gintautas Šlepikas
Alfredas Griškonis
Silverijus Lapėnas
Audronis Gulbinas
Honda Civic Type R 325
18 A3000+ 53 Dynam!:t Energy Mantas Matukaitis
Tadas Aganauskas
Aistė Antanaitytė
Molly Taylor
BMW M3 323
19 A3000 89 Helios sport – Pirelli Key point Redas Navalinskas
Vaidotas Mitkus
Karolis Gedgaudas
Artūras Radinis
BMW 325i 321
20 A3000+ 10 Techninis Projektas Aurimas Šiaulys
Tadas Petronis
Vygandas Urbanas
Mindaugas Urbanas
Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX 321
21 A3000 99 Rednut Rene Tunder
Kren Tunder
Kasmar Tunder
BMW 325 311
22 A3000+ 58 Rotoma Racing Robertas Graudinis
Mindaugas Boguševičius
Linas Vaškys
BMW M3 304
23 X1 4 Kauno automobilininkų sporto klubas Dovilas Čiutelė
Aurimas Mištautas
Conrad Rüdiger
Tomas Šutinis
Lada 2104 Turbo 301
24 A3000 33 Domus Lumina Mantas Jančauskas
Gediminas Vilimas
Mindaugas Liatukas
Kevin Abbring
BMW E36 Compact 292
25 X1 68 EBMotorsport Egidijus Bulotas
Gediminas Udras
Porsche 968EBR 291
26 D 31 AEGN Engineering-Telšių Statyba Giedrius Nomeika
Audrius Kirklys
Gvidas Aukštuolis
Artūras Ežerskis
BMW 120D 275
27 D 81 Kaukas Igoris Ivanovas
Kęstutis Vilkas
Martynas Giknius
Sigitas Ambrazevičius
Volkswagen Golf 253
28 X1 79 DFDSDHR Andrew Holland
Michael Holland
David Holland
Ford Zak 234
29 A3000+ 20 Nero Racing Nerijus Malasevičius
Tobbe Söderberg
Kent Persson
Mindaugas Varža
BMW M3 224
30 D 11 Sparti reklama Racing Team Rimas Cesiulis
Almantas Sadauskas
Karolis Staniulynas
BMW 120D 219
31 A3000+ 77 EVO performance Vytas Bilinskas
Kiril Ososov
Martynas Gediminas
Porsche Cayman 200
32 A2000 88 AUTOMANAI Marius Miškūnas
Mantas Miškūnas
Edvinas Mardosas
Honda Civic 196
33 GT 12 Orion Racing Team Rytis Garbaravičius
Marijus Mazuch
Gediminas Ramonas
BMW M3 165
34 X1 66 Domus Lumina by Samsonasracing.com Martynas Samsonas
Kevin Abbring
Mindaugas Varža
Egidijus Valeiša
Samsonasracing Kit Car 135
35 A3000+ 22 222 Igoris Sidunovas
Linas Puzonas
Eugenijus Misiūra
Audrius Gricius
Volkswagen New Beelte RSI 105
36 D 92 RIMO Rimantas Blažulionis
Saulius Vitkauskas
Martynas Samuitis
BMW 335D 104
37 GT 96 Lexus Team LT Artūras Mrazauskas
Dainius Kablys
Darius Baltramiejūnas
Lexus IS-F 90
X1 45 MOPTRANS-Club PORT by JR Motorsport Dainius Matijošaitis
Andrius Jasionauskas
Simas Juodviršis
BMW M4 82
A3000+ 8 Liqui Moly Racing Team Lithuania Edvinas Arkušauskas
Justas Tamašauskas
Kazimieras Vasiliauskas
BMW E90 EDVA 65
GT 8 RaceTech Dennis de Groot
Marius Slaboševičius
Džiugas Tovilavičius
Egidijus Valeiša
BMW M3 GT2 46
X1 7 Algirdai Racing Team Ramūnas Čapkauskas
Deividas Jocius
Vytautas Švedas
Aquila SR1 18
A3000+ 19 VIPTUNING Artjoms Koclamazasvili
Elvis Turans
Agris Petrovskis
BMW E90 12
NC X1 19 MOJO Lounge Racing by JR Motorsport Ward Sluys
Daniel Colembie
Michael Verhagen
BMW M4 DNS
NC X1 44 Blue Ghost Racing Team Benediktas Černauskas
Virginijus Lukšas
Modestas Jakas
Toyota Celica DNS

References

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