Electric touring car series starts this weekend

The all-electric touring car racing series PURE ETCR runs at the Vallelunga circuit in Italy on June 18-20.

The inaugural season heralds the competitive debut of Hyundai Motorsport’s Veloster N ETCR, the first electric racing car built by the Alzenau-based team, and it will field four drivers – Augusto Farfus, Jean-Karl Vernays, Tom Chilton and John Filippi.

 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 is held 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, June 19.

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, June 20, 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.

“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,” Hyundai Motorsport marketing and PR director Stefan Henrich says.