PCCNA: Double points finish for Madeline Stewart at Road Atlanta

Madeline Stewart continued her strong late-season form in Porsche Carrera Cup North America as she achieved two top-15 results at Road Atlanta, where the New Zealander showed excellent speed and finished both races in 13^th place.

Photo credits: Jessica Johnk

Madeline Stewart continued her strong late-season form in Porsche Carrera Cup North America as she achieved two top-15 results at Road Atlanta. Stewart qualified just a quarter of a second away from the third row of the grid and showed excellent speed across the course of the event. The JDX Racing driver finished both races in 13^th place in a weekend which featured little attrition across a close and competitive Pro class field.

Stewart arrived at Road Atlanta high on confidence after securing a season’s best result last time out at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Throughout the event, Madeline showed excellent speed as she regularly challenged those inside the top-10 over both one-lap and a full race distance. The JDX Racing driver bounced back from disappointment in race one to finish race two in tenth position, narrowly missing out on matching her career best finish in the series.

As a result, Stewart doubled her overall points tally and she was targeting further points scoring finishes in the penultimate round of the season. On her first appearance at the circuit last season, Stewart scored a top-10 finish during race two and the Kiwi racer took significant strides forward as she battled with her more experienced rivals. Therefore, Madeline had a good baseline to build from as she aimed to replicate her performances from the Brickyard.

The first free practice session of the weekend took place on Wednesday morning with the JDX Racing driver making an especially fast start. Stewart’s quickest time of a 1:23.703 was set on her penultimate lap of the session and placed her in 11^th position overall with her speed through the middle sector particularly strong.

Free practice two was held later that day and Stewart was able to complete 22 further laps to gain valuable mileage. Although she was unable to improve on her fastest lap from the morning session, Madeline was extremely consistent and ended the day with the 16^th quickest time, 15^th within the Pro class.

After a positive first day at Road Atlanta, Stewart was targeting further progress in Thursday morning’s qualifying session. The JDX Racing driver built up her confidence in the early stages, before taking a significant step forward on her second set of tyres.

Stewart’s speed through the middle sector was again her strength and she jumped inside the overall top-10 during the second half of the session. At the end of qualifying, Madeline’s fastest time of a 1:21.996 placed her in 13^th position overall and was almost two seconds quicker than she had managed the previous day. The JDX Racing driver was just a quarter of a second away from securing a spot on the third row of the grid, highlighting the progress she had made over one-lap.

Photo credits: Jessica Johnk

Race one of the weekend took place later on Thursday afternoon with Stewart lining up from 13^th on the grid. It was a clean start as the drivers made their way through the opening turns with Madeline setting into 14^th position behind teammate Sabre Cook. During the early exchanges, the Pro class drivers ran nose-to-tail and Stewart was looking to make her speed through the middle sector count as she targeted a return to the top-10.

It was an impressive start to the race for Stewart and although she remained in 14^th position, she was confidently racing among the leading group of drivers while displaying good intent to move forward. Despite coming under increasing pressure from Michael McCann, Stewart was protecting her position well while maintaining momentum which was key at Road Atlanta.

On lap nine, Stewart set a personal best time as she dipped below a time of 1:24 for the first time during the race. As Madeline looked to apply further pressure on Cook ahead, Stewart’s JDX Racing teammate retired with a gearbox issue on lap 12. This gave Stewart some clean air ahead and she immediately took advantage and opened out a small margin to McCann behind.

Now in 13^th position, Stewart was regularly setting top-5 times through the middle sector and this was allowing her to close in on Paul Bocuse ahead. Due to a number of small incidents inside the top-10, post-race time penalties were starting to be issued to those ahead and therefore maintaining a fast pace could lead to opportunities to move forward later in the race.

By lap 16, Stewart had reduced to margin to Bocuse ahead to less than a second and this was helped by the Kiwi racer being the fifth fastest driver on track. On lap 20, she replicated this pace as the fifth fastest overall driver as Madeline continued to enjoy one of her strongest races in the series to date. As the tyres started to wear, McCann mounted a challenge in the final ten minutes of the race and this resulted in Stewart falling away from the rear of Bocuse.

Nonetheless, Stewart responded well and held 13^th position as the race entered its final stages. On the final lap of the race, Stewart was required to avoid debris on the back straight which was left following a crash for Peter Atwater. An excellent drive was completed by Stewart as she took the chequered flag in 13^th position, just a quarter of a second ahead of McCann, to secure back-to-back points scoring finishes in Porsche Carrera Cup North America.

Photo credits: Jessica Johnk

Race two of the weekend took place on Friday morning with the grid positions based upon the second fastest times from qualifying. As a result, the Kiwi racer lined up from 14^th on the grid as she looked to continue her good form. Similarly to race one, a fast start from Sabre Cook on the inside line saw Stewart’s JDX Racing teammate move ahead with Madeline ending lap one in 15^th position.

In the early stages of the race, Stewart’s pace was competitive and therefore she was able to build a margin to Pro-Am class leader Patrick Mulcahy behind. With the gap to Mulcahy continuing to extend, Stewart could focus forward on mounting a challenge to Cook. Brazilian racer Matheus Leist, who was running directly ahead of Cook, was then assessed a ten-second post-race penalty for a start infraction and therefore remaining close to the group ahead was crucial.

Stewart ensured the margin to Cook rarely extended beyond half a second and therefore one small mistake from her JDX Racing teammate would lead to a change of positions. Once again, the lap times in the Pro class were extremely close and this resulted in overtaking being equally challenging as in Thursday’s first contest. Nonetheless, Stewart continued to work hard and by the conclusion of lap 15, the margin between the two female drivers had shrunk to less than half a second.

On lap 17, Stewart increased the pressure further as she got a good run out of turn seven and almost drew level with Cook as the drivers fought for position down the back straight. This was the start of an intense spell of pressure from the Kiwi racer who was now forcing Cook to defend her position, particularly through the final sector. Stewart was looking faster than Cook at this stage of the race and passing her teammate would potentially lead to a late-race charge.

On lap 24, Stewart moved into 14^th position following a solo spin for Michael McCann at turn six with both JDX Racing drivers doing a nice job to avoid the stopped machine. McCann rejoined just behind and although he closed the margin to one second, Stewart pace was strong enough to resist any challenge from her more experienced rival. A good end to the race saw Madeline take the chequered flag in 14^th position, later promoted to 13^th after Leist’s penalty was applied.

Stewart showed excellent speed at Road Atlanta and was unfortunate not to achieve higher results. The competitive nature of the Pro class field, coupled with a lack of attrition, made progress difficult, however this was one of Madeline’s strongest weekends in the series to date.

It is a fast turnaround for the Porsche Carrera Cup North America drivers who will now head to Texas for their season finale which takes place next weekend at Circuit of the Americas, in support of Formula 1.