The Aurum 1006 km is a touring car and GT endurance racing event held annually in Lithuania, at Palanga circuit, two kilometers away from the resort town of Palanga. The race was first held in 2000.

AURUM 1006 km powered by Hankook
Circuit information
VenuePalanga circuit
Corporate sponsorAURUM
First race2000
Last race2024
Distance1006 km
Laps373
Duration10 hours
Previous namesENEOS 1006 km powered by Hankook, Horn Grand Prix 1000 kilometrų lenktynės, Horn Grand prix 1003 km lenktynės, Omnitel 1000 kilometrų lenktynės
Most wins (driver)Jonas Gelžinis (10)
Most wins (team)Circle K milesPLUS Racing Team (3)
Most wins (manufacturer)Porsche (15)

History

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1000 km lenktynės at Palanga Circuit, was first held in 2000. A total of 18 teams entered the race. It was won by Vytautas Venskūnas, Vladas Laurinavičius, and Eugenijus Tumalevičius, driving a Porsche 911 993. In 2004, the number of participants increased to 34, in 2005 to 37. In the same year, the race distance was increased to 1003 km to honor new title sponsor TV3 and Horn beer, and the race was renamed to "Horn 1003 kilometrų lenktynės".

The number of participants continued to increase in the following year as the race was officially included in the list of FIA sanctioned events and the race began to attract teams and race drivers from other countries. In 2006 41 teams entered the race and in 2007 the number of participants increased to maximum 60.

In 2008 total 75 teams submitted their entries, but only 60 entered the race, as other teams, who failed to qualify, had to compete in support 100 laps race. A new title sponsor was introduced in 2007, as Omnitel replaced Horn. Therefore, the race reverted to its original 1000 km format. Omnitel pulled off its support before 2013 edition of the race, and the race became known simply as "1000 kilometrų lenktynės" until ENEOS became a title sponsor in 2015.

In 2017 race organizers introduced a Hankook as mandatory tyre, and along with TV6, it also became one of the race sponsors and race name was renamed to: "ENEOS 1006 km powered by Hankook", and in 2018 race was renamed again when the new main sponsor Aurum entered and the event became - "Aurum 1006 km powered by Hankook". In 2023, Hankook stopped supporting the race, thus allowing teams to choose tyre manufacturers by themselves. Following the departure of Hankook, the current race name is "Aurum 1006 km lenktynės"

Classes

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Touring cars, GT and prototypes can enter the race if they comply with technical regulations of the race. Open top cars, such as Radical SR8, were banned from the race after the 2014 event due to safety reasons. From 2019 class system where changed: cars that satisfy Technical Regulations and are not faster than FIA GT3 will be classified and divided into classes according to the Technical regulations of the Event.

Class Description
GT FIA GT3 cars (Art 257A), FIA R - GT cars (Art 256) and SRO GT4 (with present or expired homologation). Cars that comply with GT class principle, but were not built for FIA/ SRO homologation regulations. For example, when the base of car is a legal road sports car (Porsche, Ferrari or other). The organiser can divide cars into 2 or 3 subgroups (GT3, GT4 and GT Open ), if there are enough cars registered for separate classification.
TC Touring Cars; prepared by FIA rules for A - and N - Group (Art. 254 and Art.255), FIA rules for R - Groups (Art.260, 260d and 261) and these Rules for TC class. Class TC will be divided by calculated engine capacity to subgroups TC1 - TC4.
SP Special Cars; cars which are not accepted in any other class and silhouette cars. Electric and Hybrid cars can start only with special request. This request must be presented to the organiser at the least 3 months prior to the race. Class SP will be divided by calculating engine capacity to subgroups SP1 - SP3 and SPE for electric/ hybrid cars.
D Diesel cars; cars with diesel engine.
TCR Cars prepared according to TCR Touring Car requirements and complying to an Appendixes for Aurum 1006 km Race and TCR endurance events.

Winners of the Aurum 1006 km

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Stateta BRO by HMobile, winners of the 2023 edition.
Year Best lap time Car Class Drivers Team
2024 1:06.246 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo GT3   Anders Fjordbach
  Julius Adomavičius
  Nemunas Dagilis
  Tim Whale
Stateta BRO-TOKS by IGNERA
2023 1:05.425 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo GT3   Anders Fjordbach
  Jan Magnussen
  Eimantas Navikauskas
  Edvinas Žadeikis
Stateta BRO by HMobile
2022 1:07.126 Audi R8 LMS GT3 GT3   Julius Adomavičius
  Ignas Gelžinis
  Marijus Mazuch
  Eimantas Navikauskas
Circle K - Lesta Racing Team
2021 1:09.108 Porsche 991 GT3 Cup Gen2 GT Open   Julius Adomavičius
  Jonas Gelžinis
  Ignas Gelžinis
  Ralf Aron
Circle K milesPLUS Racing Team
2020 1:09.553 Porsche 991 GT3 Cup Gen2 GT Open   Julius Adomavičius
  Jonas Gelžinis
  Oskaras Brazaitis
  Ralf Aron
Circle K milesPLUS Racing Team
2019 1:10.384 Porsche 991 GT3 Cup GT   Julius Adomavičius
  Jonas Gelžinis
  Ignas Gelžinis
  Ralf Aron
Circle K milesPLUS Racing Team
2018 1:10.987 Porsche 991 GT3 Cup Gen2 GT   Steve Vanbellingen
  Nemunas Dagilis
  Robertas Kupčikas
Palanga SPA Hotel by EMG Motorsport
2017 1:11.781 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup GT   Ignas Gelžinis
  Jonas Gelžinis
  Egidijus Valeiša
Skuba Dream
2016 1:11.489 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup GT   Sebastiaan Bleekemolen
  Jonas Gelžinis
  Benediktas Vanagas
General Financing team Pitlane
2015 1:12.091 Porsche 991 GT3 Cup GT   Jonas Gelžinis
  Ignas Gelžinis
  Tautvydas Barštys
Juta – KG Group
2014 1:17.655 BMW E90 M3 A3000+   Jonas Gelžinis
  Ignas Gelžinis
  Edvinas Arkušauskas
Liqui Moly Racing Team Lithuania
2013 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup GT   Benediktas Vanagas
  Nemunas Dagilis
  Nerijus Dagilis
15 min. - General Financing
2012 1:21.209 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup GT   Sun Moodley
  Andrew Culbert
  Manogh Maharaj
Oktanas Racing
2011 1:27.594 Honda Civic Type-R A2000   Martynas Samuitis
  Arūnas Granskas
Neiluva - Martin Sport
2010 1:23.568 BMW M3 Silhouette X1   Benny Smets
  Ward Sluys
  Steve Vanbellingen
KS Motorsport
2009 1:22.955 Ferrari F430 Challenge GT   Jonas Gelžinis
  Aleksey Vasilyev
  Ilja Burenko
Snoras Client team
2008 1:20.734 Spyker C8 Spyder GT2R X1   Jonas Gelžinis
  Ralf Kelleners
  Aleksey Vasilyev
  Peter Dumbreck
Snoras Spyker Squadron
2007 1:25.245 AGM Kit Car X1   Ramūnas Čapkauskas
  Vidas Čebatavičius
Adampolis - Racing team
2006 1:25.570 Porsche 996 GT3 Cup A3000+   Jonas Gelžinis
  Aurelijus Rusteika
  Giedrius Tomas Jarmalavičius
  Arūnas Bartusevičius
Topo Centras
2005 1:26.641 Porsche 996 GT3 Cup A3000+   Egidijus Dapšas
  Nemunas Dagilis
  Nerijus Dagilis
Oktanas - Snaigė
2004 1:22.068 Audi RS4 A3000+   Vytautas Venskūnas
  Vygantas Simuntis
  Linas Karlavičius
  Aivaras Pyragius
Los Patrankos - Printera
2003 1:21.794 Porsche 996 GT3 Cup A3000+   Vytautas Venskūnas
  Alfredas Kudla
SK D.A.L
2002 1:25.995 Porsche 993 Cup A3000+   Vladas Laurinavičius
  Eugenijus Tamulevičius
  Aurelijus Simaška
  Nikita Kondrachinas
Lietuvos "Porsche" Klubas
2001 1:24.766 Porsche 993 RSR   Vytautas Venskūnas
  Alfredas Kudla
Automodus
2000 Porsche 993 Cup ST over 2000   Vytautas Venskūnas
  Vladas Laurinavičius
  Eugenijus Tamulevičius
Lietuvos "Porsche" Klubas

Individual race history

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2010

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2010 Omnitel 1006 kilometrų lenktynės was an 11th installment of 1000 kilometrų lenktynės. It was held on July 15–17, 2010.

The race was won by Steve Vanbellingen, Benny Smets and Ward Sluys from Belgium with BMW M3 Silhouette, who drove for KS Motorsport team. Oktanas Racing drivers Robertas Kupčikas, Nemunas Dagilis and Nerijus Dagilis finished second with Porsche 997 GT3, two laps down. Fuchs MP Sport Star Moto team's drivers Maciej Marcinkewicz, Maciej Stanco and Pawel Potocki finished third with Ferrari F430 GT3 Scuderia, 15 laps down.[1]

Only 34 cars from 42 finished the race. Fastest lap was recorded by Robertas Kupčikas, with a laptime of 1.21:032.

2012

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2012 Omnitel 1000 kilometrų lenktynės was the 13th installment of 1000 kilometrų lenktynės. It was held on July 19–21, 2012.

The race was won by South Africans Sun Moodley, Andrew Culbert and Manogh Maharaj, who drove Porsche 911 GT3 Cup for Oktanas Racing, despite running out of fuel in the final lap.[2] JR Motorsport team drivers took second with BMW M3 Silhouette. RIMO team with BMW 3 Series finished third and also took victory in diesel-powered cars class.

Race favourites BOD-Bauer Racing took pole position with a laptime of 1:30.204, but soon after the start their Aquila CR1 developed a brakes issue and finished only in 28th position. During the race weekend team also set the fastest Palanga Circuit laptime of 1:17.270, which is still the best lap time on the old configuration circuit.

2014

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2014 1000 kilometrų lenktynės was the 15th installment of 1000 kilometrų lenktynės. It was held on July 17–19, 2014. This was the first time when the race was held in shortened circuit. This was also the second time in a row when the race did not have a title sponsor after Omnitel pulled off its support in 2013.

The race was red flagged for the first time in history due to heavy rain after 303 laps from 373. Victory was awarded to Liqui Moly Racing Team Lithuania and its drivers Jonas Gelžinis, Ignas Gelžinis and Edvinas Arkušauskas with BMW M3. "INTER RAO Lietuva" finished second, 13 seconds behind with another BMW M3. Final podium position was taken by "Macrofinance" racing team with third BMW M3.[3]

Qualification was dominated by sports car drivers. Speed Factory Racing driver Konstantin Calko with Radical SR8 took pole position with a laptime of 1:07.046. "15min-GSR-Telsiu statyba" with Radical SR5 was second, 2.344 seconds behind. BarBar'a-Bauer by Algirdai took third, 2.892 behind, but due to technical problems they all finished outside the top 10.

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References

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  1. ^ ""Omnitel 1000 km lenktynes" laimėjo belgai (Papildyta)".
  2. ^ ""Omnitel" 1000 km lenktynėse pergalę iškovojo "Oktanas Racing" komanda". Sportas.lt. 2014-08-04. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  3. ^ "2014 | 1000km lenktynės". Archived from the original on 2014-06-19. Retrieved 2018-11-27.