The Aurum 1006 km is a

touring car Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars (i.e. cars without a fixed roof). "Touring car" is a style of open car built in the United States which seats four or more people. The style was popular from the early 1900s to the 1930s. The ...

and GT endurance racing event held annually in Lithuania, at

Palanga Circuit The Palanga Circuit is a temporary race track, located in Lithuanian resort town of Palanga. An annual 1000 kilometrų lenktynės, 1000 km race has been held on this circuit since 2000. Track information The track is street circuit. The race t ...

, two kilometers away from the resort town of

Palanga Palanga (; ; ) is a resort town, resort city in western Lithuania, on the shore of the Baltic Sea. Palanga is the busiest and the largest summer resort in Lithuania and has sand, sandy beaches (18 km, 11 miles long and up to 300 metres, 10 ...

. The race was first held in 2000.

History

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 Hankook Tire & Technology Co., Ltd. (), also known simply as Hankook ( , ), is a South Korean tire company based in Seoul. It is the seventh-largest tire company in the world. It is a part of Hankook & Company. History Hankook Tire was establis ...

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

Touring cars Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition that uses race-prepared touring cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not move a ...

, GT and

prototypes A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and software programming. A prototype is generally used to ...

can enter the race if they comply with technical regulations of the race. Open top cars, such as

Radical SR8 The Radical SR8 is a British sports car made by Radical Sportscars. Dominic Dobson drove one to victory in the 2015 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Michael Vergers held the all-time street legal lap record of the Nordschleife circuit on ...

, were banned from the race after the

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

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.

Winners of the Aurum 1006 km

Individual race history

2010

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 Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

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 The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance Homologation (motorsport), homologation model of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is a range of high-performance models, which began with the Porsche 911#911 Carrera RS (1973 and 1974), 1973 911 Carrera RS ...

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

2012

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 Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

ns Sun Moodley, Andrew Culbert and Manogh Maharaj, who drove

Porsche 911 GT3 Cup The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance homologation model of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is a range of high-performance models, which began with the 1973 911 Carrera RS. The GT3 has had a successful racing career in the one-make national ...

for Oktanas Racing, despite running out of fuel in the final lap. JR Motorsport team drivers took second with BMW M3 Silhouette. RIMO team with

BMW 3 Series The BMW 3 series is a line of compact executive cars manufactured by the German automaker BMW since May 1975. It is the successor to the 02 series and has been produced in seven generations. The first generation of the 3 Series was only avail ...

finished third and also took victory in

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine ...

-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

laptime of 1:17.270, which is still the best lap time on the old configuration circuit.

2014

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 Ignas Gelžinis (born 28 February 1991) is a Lithuanian racing driver, currently racing in Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain championship. His older brother Jonas Gelžinis is also racing driver. Career Summary 2012–2014: Renault Clio Cup Un ...

and Edvinas Arkušauskas with

BMW M3 The BMW M3 is a high-performance version of the BMW 3 Series, developed by BMW's in-house motorsport division, BMW M GmbH. M3 models have been produced for every generation of 3 Series since the E30 M3 was introduced in 1986. The initial mod ...

. "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. Qualification was dominated by

sports car A sports car is a type of automobile that is designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as Automobile handling, handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving, and Auto racing, racing capability. Sports cars originated in ...

drivers. Speed Factory Racing driver Konstantin Calko with

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.

External links

Official website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aurum 1006 km Motorsport in Lithuania Endurance motor racing Touring car races Sport in Palanga Recurring sporting events established in 2000 2000 establishments in Lithuania