Performance BMW — September 2017

22 PERFORMANCE BMW

NEWS

NANKANG AR-1

TYRE DOMINATES

AT SPA SUMMER

CLASSIC 2017

‘T

eam Nankang,’ consisting

of drivers Colin Wells, Matt

Evans and Piers Reid all

driving highly-tuned Butler

Motorsport E46 M3s, was

recently introduced into an open tyre

race environment, and with it already

dominating the CSCC New Millennium

series, the fi rst big outing for 2017 was

Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for the 2017

Spa Summer Classic.

Having never ventured over to Spa

with the AR-1, Nankang did not know

what to expect from such a high speed,

long circuit; it was certainly going to be a

proving ground for the AR-1.

With Thursday and Friday used for

testing, the weekend was certainly looking

promising. Colin and Piers spent time

learning the track and new car set up and

found it to be as fast as they predicted.

Driver Matt Evans had missed the

Thursday testing and had to jump straight

into qualifying on Friday with very little

seat time under his belt. All three drivers

qualifi ed well, with Colin taking pole,

Piers taking second and Matt qualifying in

11th, six seconds off the pace due to less

track knowledge.

Race one of the CSCC Inter-Series Cup

on Saturday was a great start with Colin

taking the win, closely followed by Piers in

second and Matt in fourth, 18 seconds in

front of the next competitor, while driver

Moulton-Smith of team Amspeed took

third place.

Race two saw a damp start but this

proved to be no trouble at all for the ‘Team

Nankang’ drivers, with Colin once again

fi nishing in fi rst, Piers fi nishing second and

Matt making it a Nankang one-two-three

with a third place fi nish, while Moulton-

Smith from Amspeed crossed the line

three seconds behind. Unfortunately Colin

Wells was disqualifi ed from the race due

Matt Evans battling on track

PBMW217.nankang.ed3.indd 22 07/08/2017 08:30