Mikk Maaten was fastest driver in the opening stage of the BEC series

Mikk Maaten, defending the colours of Lithuanian team GSR Motorsport, won qualifying in Riga on Friday and this allowed his #5 Volkswagen Golf to start Saturday's four-hour race from the best grid position. Mikk's teammate Ernesta Globytė drove the first shift, unfortunately the race didn't start well for them. At the start of the second lap, the #44 ALM Motorsport Seat drove into the back of the car driven by Ernesta. The ensuing pirouette knocked the #5 Volkswagen Golf into last place, but the judges saw no infringement. But nothing was broken. By the end of his hour-long shift Ernesta had moved up to fifth, and with a quick pit stop Mikk climbed up to second and began to close the gap to the leader. When he handed the car back to Ernesta at the end of the second hour, just over 20 seconds remained of the more than one-lap deficit. Once again the GSR Motorsport team was in high gear and by the end of the pit stop cycle, the #5 GSR Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR had taken the lead by a minute from its nearest rival.

Unfortunately, however, the first place, which was almost out of reach, slipped away. When Ernesta had completed half of his shift, he turned into the pit lane to refuel. Then it turned out that the fuel filler cap, which is supposed to prevent fuel from spilling out, was stuck and the petrol was not reaching the tank. By the time the mechanics had disconnected the pipe and released the valve, the leaders had already completed nine laps.

53 minutes before the chequered flag, Mikk got back in the car and it was clear that the #5 Volkswagen Golf could not climb any higher than fifth place on its own. Mikk brought the car to the finish in fifth place, but just before that he also set the fastest lap of the race with a time of 1.24,269.

Photo by Karola Koopuu

Mikk Maaten: "In the meantime, I had the feeling that you can go wherever you want, bad luck doesn't want to stay behind. It's strange that such a silly thing happens to a brand new car, but otherwise I enjoyed the race. At the end, behind the safety car, we stretched for so long, I thought I had to do a sprint and at least I got the fastest lap time. Actually it was quite tough today, the tyres didn't last at all in the hot weather. I went out to save the tyres, but keeping the front tyres on was quite tricky. At the end of the changeover, a few cars started to meet me in front of the back, so my pace was OK, although I thought it was awfully slow. Our team worked very well in the pit stops, I'm very happy with them and they with me. Ernesta also did his part, although he had a problem with tyre wear at the start. There are still small things to improve. During the race, for example, it turned out that the seat was too big for me. I had to hold on to the steering wheel and by the end of the first shift I was still pretty exhausted. "

The competition Results.

Video From the first GSR Motorsport pit stop.

The second round of the BEC series will be held in Riga on 9 June.