Madeline Stewart secured two more points-scoring finishes and an eleventh-place in the Porsche Carrera Cup North America at Indianapolis, overcoming a challenging qualifying and showing strong race pace to recover positions in both races.
Madeline Stewart secured a pair of eleventh-place finishes in the PRO class of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, recovering from a challenging qualifying and making up 11 positions over the course of the weekend.
The New Zealander, contesting her rookie season in the series after a strong North American debut last year in the Porsche Sprint Challenge NA, was coming off her first overall top ten at the previous round in Road America and continued to add solid point-scoring finishes to her tally, just missing out on a top ten after an impressive drive in Race 2.
The JDX Racing driver first secured a top-15 at Montreal, with a P13 that earned her first championship points. After an unlucky round at Watkins Glen, she bounced back with a remarkable weekend at Road America, where she scored points in both races for the first time, moving up to 16th in the point standings.
On her return to the Racing Capital of the World, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Stewart was aiming to build on the experience gained in last season's 992 class of the Porsche Sprint Challenge, where she finished just off the podium.
"I'm really looking forward to racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend", she said. "Having been based in Indianapolis for the 2024 season, it feels like a home race for me. We're coming off our best Carrera Cup round to date, so I'm focused on building on that momentum and continuing to progress."
Stewart was eleventh fastest in the first practice session and was eyeing a starting position around the top ten, but a challenging qualifying meant that her weekend was off to a trickier start.
"We didn’t quite get the car in the window for qualifying, which put us on the back foot for the weekend", she commented, having clocked a 1:26.823 lap that put her 18th on the grid for both races.
In Race 1, Loek Hartog, starting from pole, converted it into the lead, while there were contacts at turn 1 further down in the midfield. Madeline Stewart had a difficult start and dropped to P21 overall, but she soon started to recover on lap 2, making her way up to P19 overall and then picking up P13 in the Pro class as Elias De La Torre dropped down after contact with Sabré Cook.
De La Torre recovered and passed Stewart again on lap 7, as she fell back to P14 in class.
Stewart couldn't stay quite close enough to De La Torre but settled into her rhythm in 14th in the Pro class. However, she found more pace in the closing stages, matching the pace of cars further ahead. Despite running a relatively lonely race, Stewart continued to set personal best laps as the race entered its final 5 minutes.
Ahead, Hartog had checked out, while Ryan Yardley and Jimmy Llibre continued to battle for second place until two laps to go, when Yardley got past. Soon after, Llibre slowed down and pitted with issues, and the same happened to ACI Motorsports teammate Yves Baltas with one lap to go.
This meant that Madeline Stewart picked up two places at the end, finishing P11 in the Pro class and 14th overall.
"In Race 1, we fought hard, moving from 18th to 14th, even though the car still didn’t feel quite right for the conditions," Stewart recalled.
In Race 2, Madeline lined up from P14 in class and P18 overall on Saturday morning, aiming to continue her progress and make up more positions.
The Kiwi held position at the start and cleared a couple of ProAm cars to catch Jake Pedersen, the closest Pro car ahead.
Kaminsky dropped a wheel off and spun but was able to continue, as Hartog led Sedgwick and Clark after the first lap. Stewart picked up a position on Kaminsky, moving to P13 in class with good pace. She then passed Alan Metni's ProAm car and charged forward, gaining ground on Jordan Wallace.
By lap 5, Stewart was in a big battle for positions as Zachary Vanier had dropped behind a four-car pack, which Stewart joined as soon as she cleared the ProAm entries.
Madeline soon gained P12, then attacked Vanier and eventually went past on lap 13, taking P11, showing really good pace.
Stewart steadily gained on the cars ahead, closing a 9-second gap down to 6 seconds by lap 20. She set personal best sectors and matched the pace of the top six drivers.
Hartog won again unchallenged, preceding Alex Sedgwick and Dan Clark in a clean, uninterrupted race. Stewart couldn't quite catch Pedersen as time ran out but finished P11 overall, marking one of her strongest runs this season.
"We turned it around on Saturday, driving from 18th to 11th with pace to run in the top 6, which was a positive way to end the weekend", she commented.
Stewart just missed out on a top ten in the Pro class in both races, recovering well from a challenging qualifying to gain positions in both contests, completing her fourth consecutive points-scoring race in a row.
"Despite the challenges, I think we learned a lot, and I’m so grateful to my amazing team for digging in and continuing to believe in me", Madeline concluded. "Qualifying was disappointing, but they pushed hard to develop the setup and gave me a great car. Big thank you to everyone who came out to support me this weekend, and to my sponsors for making it all possible."
Two rounds remain on the 2024 calendar, with the next one scheduled for October 9-11 as the Porsche Carrera Cup North America championship will support the IMSA Petit Le Mans event at Road Atlanta, Georgia.
Comments