Round 2 of the Baltic Touring Car Championship (BaTCC) returned to Riga’s Biķernieki circuit for the Stateta PRO BRO Grand Prix. After a chaotic Summer Race season opener in May, the Baltic GT field enjoyed a calmer and more measured race weekend, as the #69 Smart Cooling by Flash Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 swept all three races.
Baltic GT Race 1
Artūrs Batraks started the team’s home race from pole in the #69 Smart Cooling by Flash Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3, leading Mārtiņš Lukstiņš in the #49 Porsche Latvia Racing Team Porsche Cayman GT4 and Audrius Piktys in the #4 PI Rent by Baltic Karting Academy Porsche Cayman GT4 to the green.
Egidijus Gelūnas, aboard the #15 Reimpex by Čapkauskas Autocentras Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo, started from seventh on the grid. Immediately, the Lithuanian blitzed to fourth place before closing in on Piktys. There, he struggled to make a move on the slippery track. Instead, he chased the two Porsches through the forest section until Piktys out-braked himself and dropped to fifth.
With Piktys out of the fight, Gelūnas made a late pass on Lukstiņš to grab second, while Paulius Urbonavičius in the #7 Ginetta G55 GT4 came close to the podium but eventually had to settle for fourth.
Batraks had already checked out early on, lapping several seconds quicker than the rest of the field on the way to winning the opening 20-minute race by 27 seconds.
Baltic GT Race 2
Race 2 took place later on Saturday afternoon in sunny and dry conditions, with Batraks again leading the field to the green flag and quickly pulling away.
Gelūnas followed in second place, while further back Lukstiņš and Piktys fought over third. While Lukstiņš held his ground against Piktys, the Porsche duo closed in on Gelūnas on the final lap. The Lamborghini pilot, however, held on until the finish to take second, with Lukstiņš third and Piktys fourth. Urbonavičius finished fifth.
Endurance Race
The headline two-hour endurance race got underway on Saturday evening with the full 27-car combined grid.
A quick start gave Ramūnas Čapkauskas in the #15 Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo the lead, but it was short-lived. Batraks retook first place before the end of the opening lap.
Gaps soon opened up, and despite a late caution to clear a crash after two BMWs came together, the running order at the front remained largely unchanged.
Flash Racing’s Artūrs Batraks and Sandis Zvidriņš led the way to complete the team’s clean sweep of the weekend. They were followed by Čapkauskas Racing’s Ramūnas Čapkauskas and Egidijus Gelūnas – the latter clearly unhappy with the Super Trofeo’s Balance of Performance – making it a Lamborghini one-two. The caiman-liveried #49 Porsche Latvia Racing Team Cayman GT4 of Martins Lukstiņš and Vadims Vakarjuks completed the podium despite a brake fire during its pit stop.
The #4 PI Rent by Baltic Karting Academy Porsche Cayman GT4 came home in fourth, ahead of the #95 Energizer by RSParts Volkswagen Golf TCR in fifth.
The Volkswagen crew profited from a mistake by Vidas Samuolis in the #1 Baltic Karting Academy Porsche Cayman GT4. Samuolis had run fifth for most of the race, but overshot his braking point into Turn 2 at the restart with nine minutes remaining. The Porsche dropped to seventh after losing valuable time rejoining the race, while the #16 Aivis Racing Cupra TCR moved up to sixth.
Kaunas next
After two rounds in Latvia, the Baltic Touring Car Championship travels to Lithuania for the PRO BRO Grand Prix Kaunas at Nemuno Žiedas on 3-4 July. In the standings, Čapkauskas Racing still holds the edge in the BGT PRO sprint table, with Egidijus Gelunas leading Artūrs Batraks by 61 points to 50. In the endurance championship, however, Flash Racing has taken control: the #69 Flash Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 leads the Hankook Endurance Challenge standings on 120 points, ahead of the #15 Čapkauskas Lamborghini ST on 100.
Baltic motorsport on the rise
Biķernieki again underlined why Baltic GT is worth watching. Flash Racing’s clean sweep, Čapkauskas Racing’s sprint lead and a busy 27-car endurance grid all point to a scene with real momentum. That progress is visible not only on track, but also within the teams: Čapkauskas Racing continues to stand out as one of Lithuania’s leading GT teams, while Latvian racer Valters Zviedris is involved at Porsche Latvia Racing Team as driver coach. In our feature ‘A bright future on the horizon: Baltic motorsport steps onto the European stage’, Zviedris joins Arūnas Gečiauskas and Jonas Gelžinis to discuss how Baltic racing is building its place on the wider European endurance stage.
Photos by Jānis Ivanovskis
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