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.

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to rebuild both cars before the race, therefore Daniel Colembie and his co-drivers Michael Verhagen and Ward Sluys withdrawn from the race.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 van Rompuy Tom van Rompuy 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