Traction 2016 Rd2 – Report
Sunday saw the second round of Traction 2016 at Swifts Raceway, Sheffield, UK. With an increased entry list, the series is really starting to gain momentum. The round also saw some LMP’s join the field including a new chassis from Schumacher Racing. The Eclipse is Schumacher’s return to the LMP class and this would be the first big event the car had entered into. There was a lot of talk round the pits as to how well the new contender would perform with its GT12 style layout. Just like round 1 there was a generally relaxed atmosphere in the pits which encouraged even more friendly banter than usual. In Traction style the track was again fast a flowing to try and suit all the classes. Everything was set for another epic day.
After a clean start in GT12 it looked like everyone was going to see a strong battle between Aird and Nutting. Nutting was attempting to pressure Aird into a mistake but it was Nutting who broke on lap 4 with an error turning into the first chicane. The error pushed him all the way down to 7th. Aird made a run for it while Andy Ryan and Nathanael Goodban moved into second and 3rd places. The race settle from there until the midway point when Nutting caught up with Goodban, clearly the red mist was helping his charge as he set the fastest lap of the race. The pair had a minor coming together before Nutting completed a beautiful pass into the first chicane. For the remaining laps Nutting cut down the gap to second from 4 seconds to less than half a second. Sadly there wasn’t enough time left for them to battle making Aird the winner with Ryan and Nutting runners up.
After some messy World GT10 qualifying rounds everyone seemed to up their game for the final with a very clean start. The top three quickly engaged in battle in which Michelle Snowden emerged into the lead with George Brewer hot on her tail. For several laps Brewer pushed hard before forcing Snowden in to an error which cost her over 5 seconds. This allowed a charging Mark Deacon into second place which quickly became the lead as Brewer got caught up with a back marker. After that it became a challenge of who could handle the back markers better and Deacon was the driver to do this perfectly. By the midway point he had a 8 second lead while Snowden and Brewer became locked in a battle for second. It was decided in the last few laps where the pair raced side by side trading places at every corner, Brewer was the driver to fall as he clipped one of the corners sending him crashing into Snowden. Justice sorted itself out as Snowden was the one who gained the advantage from the incident to finish second with Brewer completing the podium.
As expected the Formula A-final was between Championship leader James Wright and Luke Lee. Wright got away from a clean start to build up a comfortable lead, everything was looking controlled until an unforced error sent him over the track markers. The mistake cost him the lead and reversed the battle with Lee. From there on he managed the gap up to the chequered flag. Behind them there was a great battle between most of the others but it was Carter who kept a clean race secure the final step of the podium.
The last final of the day – LMP – promised to be a good one with Murray and Catchpole once again locking horns. Unfortunately, the race would be decided by a technical fault, however it would be Murray this time with the gremlins. Accelerating off the line his new Eclipse appeared to call out in pain with what sounded like a slipping diff. He attempted to hold the lead but as Catchpole applied the pressure the car soon buckled forcing him to retire. After that the battle was for second and third. Nutting had a good gap in second but after a incident on lap 34 his pace started to drop off. Mawson capitalised and challenged for second allowing Ripley to catch up to the party. Mawson was the one to lose out while Nutting nursed his car home to second place with Ripley following very closely.
Source: Swifts Raceway [swiftsraceway.co.uk]
