Martina Ward battles challenging conditions in Donington Park season finale

Martina Ward wrapped up her 2024 Massimo Tyres 5Club Racing MX5 Cup season at Donington Park with two clean races, making steady progress through the field despite challenging weather conditions and showing significant lap time improvements.

Photo credits: Jon Elsey Motorsport Photography

Martina Ward closed out her Massimo Tyres 5Club Racing MX5 Cup campaign with a challenging weekend at Donington Park. Despite a tough event battling changeable weather, Ward was able to gain vital experience in damp conditions while finishing both races without incident.

After qualifying in 28th position, Martina finished race one in 26th before improving one place to 25th in a dry race two where she made significant lap time improvements.

Following a career-best meeting last time out at Oulton Park, Ward was aiming to push further towards the front at Donington Park. Martina has consistently lapped on-pace with those inside the top-10 of the highly-competitive one-make series and was aiming to continue this form.

The Massimo Tyres 5Club Racing MX5 Cup utilised the full Grand Prix layout at Donington Park and therefore overtaking opportunities would be plentiful in the pair of fifteen-minute races which both took place on Saturday.

Qualifying was the first session of the weekend and was held early in the morning with extremely cool ambient temperatures, while a damp track adding to the challenge. Ward built up her confidence during the session as she battled with challenging conditions at Donington Park. At the end of the fifteen-minute session, Martina had set the 28th fastest time and was looking ahead to two races where she could make progress through the field.

Conditions remained extremely treacherous for race one of the weekend with a damp track and light rain in the air. Ward made a clean start and although she dropped to 30th position, she was in a train of cars who were battling hard for position. Martina was able to move ahead of Paul Barnard on lap two while losing out to Stephen Craggs as she retained a position inside the top-30.

After the car of Stephen Robinson spun into the gravel at the Old Hairpin on lap three, the safety car was required with Ward moving up to 29th position. Due to the long lap of the Donington Park Grand Prix circuit and a race duration of fifteen-minutes, just one lap was possible on the restart. Ward took full advantage of the green flag running and passed Neil Burrows, Philip Barrett and Richard Beale to take the checkered flag in 26th position.

For the second race of the weekend, conditions had improved with a predominantly dry circuit with just a few damp patches away from the racing line. Ward started from 26th position and although it was a challenging opening lap as she fell to 29th, she was quickly lapping faster than she had all day.

This allowed her to gain four positions on lap two as she ran side-by-side with Nicola Favot to begin lap three. Favot was able to regain the spot, however Ward still advanced her position as she overtook both Jack Lawrence and Neil Burrows.

Although Lawrence moved back ahead a lap later, Ward was still improving significantly and was now lapping almost ten seconds faster than in the first race of the day. All drivers continued to improve with favourable track conditions and Martina fell behind a hard-charging Andrew Robinson in the closing stages. Nonetheless, her improvements continued and this saw her take the checkered flag in 25th position to end a day of progress at Donington Park.

Ward displayed great determination to battle through the challenging conditions at Donington Park to record two clean races to end her 2024 campaign. She was able to enjoy a number of close battles in the midfield and bank valuable experience despite not achieving the results she was aiming for.

Martina’s partial season in the Massimo Tyres 5Club Racing MX5 Cup has been full of promise and she will be aiming to carry forward her strong performances from Oulton Park in particular into the 2025 season.