PCCNA: Madeline Stewart enjoys weekend of progress in Miami
- LIAM REDFORD
- May 6
- 4 min read
Despite battling technical issues during the event, Madeline Stewart raced smartly and gained valuable experience at the Miami International Autodrome as she secured two top-15 Pro class finishes in Porsche Carrera Cup North America.
JDX Racing driver Madeline Stewart made good progress at the Miami International Autodrome as she secured two top-15 Pro class finishes in Porsche Carrera Cup North America. Despite battling technical issues during the event, Stewart raced smartly and gained valuable experience in a number of close midfield battles.
Stewart experienced a challenging start to the season as a qualifying crash ruled her out of both races at Sebring International Raceway. Therefore, the Kiwi racer was eager to kickstart her campaign at the Miami International Autodrome. Unlike some of her rivals, Stewart raced at the temporary circuit in 2024 and was therefore looking to use her experience to challenge for points scoring positions.
A return to Miami also meant a return to competing on the Formula 1 package and Stewart was keen to start the weekend on the front foot. Drivers were given two free practice sessions on Friday in order to reacclimatise themselves with the circuit and work on car setup.
The first session was held on Friday afternoon and ran uninterrupted for the full 30-minute duration. Stewart used the session to get up to speed and her fastest time of a 2:01.493 came on her 13th lap of practice. The JDX Racing driver ended the session with the 21st fastest time, 14th in the Pro class, as she targeted further improvements in session two.
Session two was held later in the afternoon and Stewart took advantage of the cooler conditions to improve significantly. Breaking the two-minute barrier, Madeline ended the day with a quickest lap of a 1:59.956 which placed the JDX Racing driver in 20th position overall, 14th in the Pro class.
After a day of progress on Friday, Stewart was looking to take a further step forward in performance on Saturday with qualifying the first session of the day. The JDX Racing driver improved upon her best time by almost a quarter of a second as she set a quickest lap of a 1:59.771 which placed her 23rd overall, 14th in the Pro class.
Race one of the weekend took place early on Saturday evening with Stewart promoted to 22nd on the overall grid following a post-session exclusion for Riley Dickinson. Stewart did a nice job to make a clean start as she avoided a series of first lap incidents ahead of her. At the end of lap one, the JDX Racing driver remained in 22nd position overall, while holding down 14th spot in the Pro class. The safety car was then deployed to retrieve the stricken ACI Motorsports machine of Marco Cirone who had made contact with Scott Blind at turn one.
When the racing resumed, Stewart was sizing up a move on Pro class rival Wesley Slimp as she ran closely behind the Kellymoss driver. On lap six, retirements for Sabre Cook and Paul Bocuse elevated Madeline inside top-20, while she also completed a smart overtake on Slimp. Stewart was running in 19th position overall, 11th in the Pro class, when the safety car was required for a second time on lap six as a bollard required replacing.
On the restart, Stewart fell behind Slimp but she was soon into her highest overall position of the race after Ryan Yardley was spun out of a podium position. This promoted Stewart to 18th overall, 12th in the Pro class, on lap 11, before Yardley moved ahead as he targeted a late-race recovery drive.
Into the closing stages of the race, Stewart set a personal best time as she chased down Slimp with the two Pro class drivers continuing their race-long battle. Stewart took the chequered flag in 19th position overall, 13th within the Pro class, before being promoted to 18th overall following a post-race penalty assessed to Pro-Am driver Kenton King for avoidable contact.
Race two of the weekend took place on Sunday morning with Stewart lining up from 23rd on the overall grid, 14th within the Pro class. Stewart made a clean start and although she lost two positions within class, she ended lap one in 22nd position overall. On lap three, Ashley Freiberg was spun around at the final turn and as a result, Stewart was up to 21st overall, 15th in the Pro class.
Pro-Am driver Kenton King was on a comeback drive after a challenging start and he overtook Stewart on lap four. Madeline settled in behind the ACI Motorsports driver and ran a series of personal best times, almost matching her quickest lap from qualifying. Another improvement followed on lap nine and this allowed Stewart to remain in contention with the group of drivers ahead.
JP Martinez then served a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact and his Pro-Am class machine was now behind Stewart. After her earlier incident, Freiberg was also on a recovery drive and she closed onto the rear of Madeline in the closing stages. Stewart was determined to protect her position and she successfully resisted the challenge posed by the Kellymoss driver as she set further personal best times.
On the final lap of the race, Alan Metni was spun around and both King and Marco Cirone received time penalties for separates infringement and this allowed Stewart to gain two positions. After defending superbly from Freiberg, Stewart was classified in 18th position overall, 15th in the Pro class.
Stewart completed a clean weekend in Miami with two top-15 results within class. She made good progress during the event despite battling some technical issues with her JDX Racing machine. Madeline will be looking to push towards the overall top-10 when the Porsche Carrera Cup North America drivers head to Montreal in Canada on the weekend of June 14th/15th.
