Šiaulių TMC autodromas and KART3: skid plates, go-karts and Driftiškės

The building permit came on 26 February 2014, and from that day the company UAB “Šiaulių plentas” worked on an empty field in the village of Katiliškės in the Šiauliai district of Lithuania. A public vocational training centre from Šiauliai had commissioned an autodrome there, on which drivers of lorries, buses and passenger cars were to learn to control skids on water-sprayed plates. A decade later Lithuanian drifters call the place Driftiškės, the 1.9 km loop is crossed by the KART3 karting track, which hosts rounds of the Lithuanian championship, and an hour of driving your own car around the loop costs from 30 to 35 euro with the operator.

Location	Katiliškių k. 3, village of Katiliškės, Kuršėnai rural eldership, Šiauliai district, Lithuania
Type	advanced driver training centre (sectoral practical training centre for transport workers) with a loop, two skid-plate modules and the KART3 karting track
Area	10.1221 ha according to the project, “almost ten hectares” according to the press
Loop	1.9 km, more than 20 corners
Skid plates	dynamic braking zone with a plate that kicks out the rear of the car, and a descent with a U-shaped turn; friction coefficient on the wet surface 0.25
Construction	2014–2015, contractor UAB “Šiaulių plentas”
Operator	Šiaulių technologijų mokymo centras (since 1 September 2022), previously Šiaulių darbo rinkos mokymo centras
Main events	Lithuanian and Baltic drift championships, Lithuanian karting championship, Lithuanian supermoto championship, Lithuanian Street Race championship, the “Geriausias Lietuvos vairuotojas” contest
Status	active

A field by the railway embankment

It began in Šiauliai. Šiaulių darbo rinkos mokymo centras (literally: the Šiauliai labour market training centre, DRMC for short) dated its activity from 1978 and had a driver training department from the start. On 23 August 2011 it signed an agreement on financing project no. VP3-2.2-ŠMM-13-V-03-034 with the Central Project Management Agency (Centrinė projektų valdymo agentūra). The aim was to create a sectoral practical training centre for transport workers in the Šiauliai region. The centre was to meet Lithuanian and EU standards for infrastructure used to train professional drivers, and to consist of a building, driving routes and two specialised modules.

The contract with the builder, UAB “Šiaulių plentas”, was signed on 16 October 2013, and work started once the building permit was issued on 26 February 2014. On 10.1221 ha of empty field there were to be driver training routes with all the training elements, a car park, the centre building and a hangar with a ramp. The project was scheduled to end on 30 June 2015.

At the end of October 2015 the daily “Šiaulių kraštas” wrote about the autodrome, which was already open. DRMC's acting director Genė Podolskienė told the paper that the idea of a modern base for practical training had first come up eight years earlier:

“Travelling around foreign countries, we saw that there is more than one such autodrome. In Austria, in Germany and in other countries they are very popular, so we too had the idea of giving both future drivers and professionals the opportunity to raise their professional competence and improve their driving skills.”

According to the paper it was the third autodrome of its kind in Lithuania, after the tracks of the training centres in Panevėžys and Klaipėda, and another was being prepared in Vilnius. Under the project the centre bought two lorries, a passenger car, a motorcycle and a driving simulator, and the instructors talk to trainees by radio from control desks. A short film published on 14 September 2015 on the “Vairuotojų mokymas” channel, with the centre's contact details in the description, announced two skid tracks, a 1.9 km “extreme driving” loop and an off-road section.

Today the facility is one of three sectoral practical training centres of Šiaulių technologijų mokymo centras (ŠTMC). It is meant to give drivers of various vehicle categories, students of vocational schools and other driving schools, and employers' representatives the conditions to improve their driving technique, and it runs programmes for drivers carrying goods and passengers. ŠTMC was created on 1 September 2022 by merging three institutions: DRMC, Šiaulių profesinio rengimo centras and the polytechnic school in Kuršėnai. The basis was government resolution no. 437 of 27 April 2022.

The plate that kicks the rear out

The heart of the training is two modules with skid plates. The first is a dynamic braking zone with a fixed skid track and a plate that shifts the rear axle of a lorry, bus or passenger car to the left or right and sends the vehicle into a sideways slide of the rear. The second is a descent, and in the other direction a climb, with a U-shaped turn at the bottom. A white coating is poured onto the asphalt there which, when wet, gives a friction coefficient of 0.25. In 2015 “Šiaulių kraštas” described how it looks from behind the wheel: the plate at the start of one of the tracks kicks the rear of the car out, and the driver has to regain control of the car and avoid obstacles of water fountains that spring up in front of the bonnet. The U-shaped descent recreates a situation familiar from the roads, a slippery bend at the foot of a hill.

Next to the plates lies the loop, in Lithuanian žiedinė trasa. The operator says it is 1.9 km long with more than 20 sharp corners, and that on the straight you can test the power of your car. In 2015 the paper wrote that all the tracks are open all year round: buses and lorries on the skid plates, powerful sports cars on the loop, quads and off-roaders on the off-road section. In 2021 the centre's website described the off-road section as “mud baths”, a log bridge, a gravel road and a hill.

Motorcyclists had the most to say about the character of this asphalt. On Saturday 24 July 2021 the fourth round of the Lithuanian supermoto championship, that is, races of motocross bikes on road tyres, was held here, with 65 motorcyclists and quad riders from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine and Poland. The president of the Lithuanian Motorcycle Sport Federation (LMSF), Giedrė Janušauskė, spoke of a 1300 m track lying next to a railway embankment, full of hills and picturesque bends. The race official Justina Šeniauskienė pointed to two humps in the asphalt section, where a great many duels were fought. This time the riders went the opposite way, clockwise, and some corners could only be taken in first gear. The release announcing the start of the season in May that year described the place as a picturesque spot near Šiauliai, past which trains whistle by. At the end of May 2022 supermoto returned here for the first and second rounds of the Lithuanian championship and cup, held in changeable, rainy weather in 11 classes; the professional S1 class was won by the Estonian Eero Madisson.

A proving ground known as the Kuršėnai autodrome

The name of the village of Katiliškės never made it into drivers' vocabulary. The Lithuanian Journalists' Auto Club (Lietuvos žurnalistų autoklubas), which since 2000 has searched every year for Lithuania's best driver in the “Geriausias Lietuvos vairuotojas” contest, in 2018 scheduled the qualifiers for 22 September and the final for 23 September at the DRMC autodrome. In the final, contestants answer traffic-rules tests, drive a slalom and an off-road stage, replace a car part, identify components and resuscitate a dummy. In 2020 the organisers wrote that the final “traditionally” awaits in Šiauliai, at the DRMC centre, “even better known as the Kuršėnai autodrome”, and scheduled it for 13 September.

In March 2021 the same club announced the first Lithuanian Truck of the Year vote and planned a test camp for the candidates in May, at the Kuršėnai autodrome. The club's president Valdas Valiukevičius explained it briefly: “we have the best test proving ground in Lithuania in Kuršėnai, at the autodrome of Šiaulių darbo rinkos mokymo centras”.

The emergency services tested themselves on the same tracks. On 28 November 2019 two crews each were fielded by the Šiauliai county fire service, the ambulance service, a unit of the National Defence Volunteer Forces from the Prisikėlimas district, the Border Guard post in Šiauliai, the county police and the air defence battalion of the Lithuanian Air Force. Before they drove out onto the tracks, the Lithuanian Red Cross instructor Egidijus Kalinaitis asked them to resuscitate an electronic manikin, which, as the paper noted, not all of them managed. The driving events were won by the police, ahead of the air defence battalion and the border guards from Šiauliai. In the ŠTMC calendar the autodrome also hosts school events: road safety festivals on 4 April 2025 and 3 April 2026, and the MINI CAR competition for AM category vehicles on 30 November 2024.

Go-karts on asphalt built for lorries

On the weekend of 11 September 2021 the autodrome hosted the penultimate, fifth round of the Lithuanian karting championship, on a track laid out specially for the occasion. The president of the Lithuanian Karting Federation, Karolis Šikšnelis, was delighted: “It is a very interesting track, unique in its configuration. All our competitors are really looking forward to the chance to race on a new track that nobody knows, which is set up only temporarily for our championship round, because people usually learn the subtleties of driving a car here.” Almost 150 competitors were expected at the start. By autumn 2021 the centre had also installed a MYLAPS timing system for cars, motorcycles and go-karts.

A few months later karting settled here for good. In January 2022 DRMC presented go-karts as a new service of the autodrome and announced that, together with Baltic Karting Academy and the Lithuanian Karting Federation, it was organising sports and educational projects on its track: single-class competitions and camps for children, teenagers and adults. The project's originator and curator was the deputy director for infrastructure, Audrius Adomaitis. The centre's website counted down to the official opening of the KART3 karting track on Saturday 7 May 2022 at 12:00 and stated that the rental go-karts are certified to the 16230-1 standard. In June the centre's news list already carried the title “New go-karts, new track! The Šiauliai karting track «KART 3» is open!”. The second round of the KART3 cup was scheduled for the night of 11 June 2022: each participant was to complete at least two runs of 10 minutes, the times were added up, and the final was run on a different configuration of the track, with a rolling start behind a safety kart.

At the end of June 2022 almost 150 participants of the Lithuanian karting championship and cup came here, split into 20 classes, from three-year-olds in the “Baby” class to competitors over sixty in the retro class. In the fastest class, KZ2, all three rounds of the season so far had been won by Kajus Šikšnelis. In 2023 the championship calendar had Kuršėnai down for July. The fourth round took place “at the KART3 karting track of Šiaulių technologijų mokymo centras”; together with the support series, almost 150 drivers from the three Baltic states started over two days, and the KZ2 final, 19 laps in 16 min 57.096 s, was won by Jokūbas Bagdonavičius. At the end of August 2025 KART3 hosted the fifth and final round of the season; the release before the event promised 20 sharp corners on every lap. The track's rental fleet uses CRG go-karts: the Centurion Senior, the Centurion Mini for the youngest (the operator gives a height of 130 cm) and the two-seat Centurion 2-seater.

An hour on the loop for 30 euro

For a driver who wants to come in their own car, the autodrome has a standing price list instead of an event calendar. On the KART3 website an hour of driving on the loop costs 30 euro by car from Monday to Friday and 35 euro at weekends, and 15 euro by motorcycle. The price list on the ŠTMC website is more detailed and slightly different: 30 euro per hour from Monday to Thursday and 35 euro from Friday to Sunday for a car or two motorcycles, with the proviso that the session is paused when go-karts are on the track. For 25 euro per hour you can drive a variant that does not cross the karting track, and each additional car costs 20 euro per hour. On the skid plates, where clients drive their own cars, one to four at a time, an hour costs 100 euro on working days and 120 euro at weekends and on public holidays. The whole autodrome can be hired for 200 euro per hour on working days and 300 euro at weekends. The KART3 price list page is being rebuilt and refers visitors to the phone, so the rates need to be confirmed before you arrive.

The formalities are simple but strict. You must show a driving licence, the registration certificate, the roadworthiness inspection document and a compulsory third-party liability insurance policy. The car's cooling, fuel and lubrication systems and its transmission must not leak, loose items in the cabin and boot must be secured, the tyres may not have studs or stones in the tread, and the body has to be clean. The client is liable for damage to the fencing and the surface if it was caused by fast or careless driving. A motorcyclist may ride on the loop only in a helmet, gloves and clothing with spine, elbow and knee protectors.

You can also bring your own car to organisers' events. Slalomo akademija planned a full #OPENTRACK day at “ŠTMC autodromas” for 20 July 2025, with four Street Race configurations, that is, fast slalom, driven anticlockwise, and timed lap sessions. A full day was to cost 80 euro, half a day 60 euro and 90 minutes of timed driving 99 euro; a technically sound car and a helmet were required. The event was cancelled because of the weather. Street Race does have a history here, though: in May 2023 the autodrome hosted the second round of the Lithuanian championship, and the most powerful class, SGC-4, was won by Simonas Kazbaras of Slalomo akademija. For 30 May 2026 the Rally 4 Fun association scheduled the second round of the Lithuanian Street Race championship here, with a guest class open to newcomers and entry fees from 60 euro; spectators were to get in free. Training is not reserved for cars: in June 2024 “Šiaulių kraštas” described an emergency riding course for motorcyclists that the Kuršėnai motorcycle club Biesa MCC organised together with ŠTMC at the KART3 base, run by Rytis R. Mežonis, the founder of motogym.lt. The centre scheduled the opening of the 2026 season at the autodrome for 1 May.

Driftiškės

The facility leads its most unusual life on drifters' weekends. In April 2022 the “Betsafe Drift Matsuri” event opened the Lithuanian drift season: 140 cars and 12 hours of driving, six on a dry surface and six on a wet one. The organiser Linas Ramoška admitted he was surprised by the turnout himself: “more than two thousand spectators, who not only managed to find the town of Driftiškės but stayed here even when the heavens opened”. Major incidents were avoided, he reported, and the only “vehicle” destroyed beyond repair was a mock-up of a Russian warship, which Simonas Vilčinskas sent to the next world. The guests included the European drift vice-champion Grzegorz Hypki and William Hanna from the PRO league of the British championship; both praised the track and the level of the Lithuanian drivers. The centre had already written about Drift Matsuri at its autodrome in 2021. The joking name stuck for good: in July 2022 the releases ahead of Drift Camp #3, a round of the Lithuanian championship and of the Baltic championship, explained to readers that this meant the DRMC autodrome in Kuršėnai, “nicknamed Driftiškės”.

On 6 July 2024 the ŠTMC autodrome hosted a round of the Pro league of the Baltic drift championship, which also counted towards the Pro league of the Lithuanian championship. It was won by Aurimas Vaškelis. The league newcomer Paulius Petrauskas arrived in a yellow BMW E36 with a 4.3-litre turbocharged Toyota V8 producing 800 hp; his team's release called the autodrome “relatively compact”, and he said himself:

“Already in qualifying we saw that on the Kuršėnai track the most important thing would be driving very accurately: precision, hitting the line and the distances to the control points matter much more here than speed.”

At the turn of May and June 2025 the second round of the Lithuanian and Baltic championships was won by Benediktas Čirba, who beat Andrius Vasiliauskas in the final; on the Sunday after the competition the Matsuri festival was still going on in Driftiškės. In July that year, in an event that ended in rain, the next round was won by the Estonian Siim Oskar Haal, and representatives of all three Baltic countries stood on the podium; the organisers' release called Kuršėnai the capital of Lithuanian drifting. In September 2025 Drift Matsuri, which according to the release had grown within a few years from a local season-closing tradition into one of the largest drift festivals in Lithuania, again lasted 12 hours. There were 150 participants, including 20 Latvians and two Finns, among them the 2024 Drift Masters Grand Prix champion Lauri Heinonen. Everyone wanted a ride with the Finn, from fans to spectators who were in Driftiškės for the first time, and he spent almost the whole 12 hours on the track without any longer breaks. On Saturday evening fireworks went up over the autodrome and closed the season.

Timeline

• 1978: Šiaulių darbo rinkos mokymo centras begins operating, with a driver training department from the start.
• 2011: on 23 August, agreement on financing the project for a sectoral training centre for transport workers.
• 2013: on 16 October, contract with the builder, UAB “Šiaulių plentas”.
• 2014: on 26 February, building permit and start of work in the village of Katiliškės.
• 2015: opening of the autodrome with skid plates, a 1.9 km loop and an off-road section.
• 2018: qualifiers and final of the “Geriausias Lietuvos vairuotojas” contest.
• 2021: a round of the Lithuanian supermoto championship and a round of the Lithuanian karting championship on a temporary track.
• 2022: opening of the KART3 karting track; on 1 September Šiaulių technologijų mokymo centras becomes the operator.
• 2024: a round of the Pro league of the Baltic drift championship.
• 2025: rounds of the drift and karting championships, the September Drift Matsuri with Lauri Heinonen.
• 2026: a round of the Lithuanian Street Race championship.