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Charged and ready for battle

PURE ETCR set for season opener in Vallelunga


PURE ETCR set for season opener in Vallelunga

We are raring to go racing in the inaugural season of PURE ETCR, the all-electric touring car racing series, which kicks off at Vallelunga next week (June 18-20).

Our participation in the new series marks the next step in our electric racing journey, which is the newest pillar of our motorsport activities. PURE ETCR’s Italian opener will also herald the competitive debut of our Veloster N ETCR, the first-ever electric car built at our Alzenau base.

“After almost two years of preparation and development, the whole team is looking forward to seeing the result of our hard work as the Veloster N ETCR is driven in competition for the very first time,” said our Director of Marketing and PR Stefan Ph. Henrich.

New championship, new format
PURE ETCR features an innovative racing format, with a focus on short, intensive sprints to the finish and increasing points awarded in every on-track session. A draw takes place on Friday evening to split the field into two pools at the beginning of the weekend, with drivers then divided into smaller groups to face off behind PURE ETCR’s impressive Starting Gate.

Rounds 1 and 2 are held on Saturday; in Round 1, three cars compete in a short race around a 1.75km configuration of the track which determines their battle group for Round 2. Round 3 on Sunday is a time trial, with cars heading out one by one in a bid to set the fastest time and claim the best starting position in the Finals. Six cars line-up to go door-to-door in each Final, competed on a longer track configuration at 3.2km, before the driver with the most points is crowned King or Queen of the Weekend.

A fearsome foursome
We will field four drivers in the debut season of PURE ETCR. Augusto Farfus and Jean-Karl Vernay, who proved to be invaluable assets in the Veloster N ETCR’s test and development team, will both be behind the wheel of the car in Vallelunga.

“It is a unique pleasure and honour to be part of this new championship,” said Augusto. “I’m looking forward to it and very thankful to Hyundai Motorsport for the support and trust to represent the Veloster N ETCR in this new racing series.”

“It will be interesting to see the new racing format in action and compare ourselves to the other brands in the heat of the battles,” added Jean-Karl. “We have done a lot of tests over the winter so I can’t wait to see how it goes.”

Augusto and Jean-Karl will be joined by Tom Chilton and John Filippi for the first-ever electric touring car race.

“It is very different to anything else I have driven but I’m really enjoying the new challenge of racing not only my first electric car, but my first races as battles,” said Tom. “I cannot wait to get racing for the first time at Vallelunga in Italy.”

“I think we will get stronger with every session and finish at the top,” added John, “this is the target, and I will work hard for this.”

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