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24
WORLD AND LIFE
TCR 2016
NEWS
Palanga to host the TCR
Baltic Trophy in 2017
TCR has now reached the Baltic region, where a TCR
Trophy category will be run next year within the
popular Eneos 1000Km race at Palanga, Lithuania.
The announcement was made during a crowded press
conference in the media centre of the Palanga
racetrack, just before the start of the 17th edition of
the 1000Km race that was also visited by Lithuania’s
Prime Minister, the Minister of Transport and
Palanga’s Mayor.
The first TCR car sold to Lithuania, a JAS-built
Honda Civic owned by the Rimo Team was exhibited
in front of the media centre.
Darius Jonušis, CEO of the Vilnius-based Promo
Events that organizes the race in Palanga explained:
“There are a lot of teams and drivers between
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia that are looking with
interest to TCR as a category that delivers high level
competition at affordable costs. We think this is the
right moment to start introducing TCR in the region,
beginning with the creation of a dedicated category
in the Eneos 1000Km from next year. This is meant
to be the first step towards the establishment of a
proper TCR Baltic Championship that might also
extend as far as Poland.”
Among this year’s competitors in the Eneos 1000Km
race was Steve Vanbellingen from Belgium, who is
also racing a Volkswagen Golf GTI in TCR Benelux. He
said: “This will be a great opportunity to open a new
market to sell and rent TCR cars. And on top of this,
I think that TCR cars will be very competitive at
Palanga; they could even fight for the overall victory
in case of rain…”.
TCES will inaugurate
Racepark Meppen
The maiden season of the Touring Car Endurance Series
will come to an end on September 23 and 24 in Germany.
The series will have the honour to run in the first
international event on the brand new Racepark Meppen
that was opened earlier this year.
The 2.3km long circuit is located a few kilometres north of
Meppen, in Lower Saxony and East of the Dutch border.
The pit lane is ‘USA style’, therefore the teams will be
working from special pit structures, provided and installed
by TCES promoter Creventic. Mobile re-fuelling facilities,
familiar from the other TCES and 24H Series rounds, will
be used for the fuel stops.