Porsche Carrera Cup racer Madeline Stewart: "This season hasn’t been an easy one for us."
Kiwi racer Madeline Stewart is continuing to climb the motorsport ladder and is currently plying her trade in America, racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup North America.
Now in her third season racing Porsches in America, Stewart initially found success contesting the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America, where she finished third with six podium finishes and a further seven top-five results.
Stewart has found the step up into the top category of the German one-make series – Porsche Carrera Cup North America (PCCNA) – a challenge she welcomes. After having a bit of a speed wobble at the start of the 2025 championship, Stewart has had a few good results of late, which sees her sitting 19th out of 40 drivers in the series on eight points. The championship is headed by Riley Dickinson (192), fellow New Zealander Ryan Yardley (190) and Zachary Vanier (152).
“This season hasn’t been an easy one for us,” Stewart told the Weekend Herald. “There was a fair bit going on at the beginning of the season and I missed the first two races after a crash. At the second race weekend we were down on power, so no points over those two races either.
“It’s been much better the last couple of rounds as we are consistently in the top half of the field, picking up points and getting really close to being in the top 10, which is great.
“It’s been a really big jump [Sprint Challenge to Carrera Cup] and in the very best way, though. Carrera Cup around the world is so highly renowned because of how competitive these championships are.
“In Carrera Cup the field is so close because everybody is really talented and really good and the teams are amazing. You’re looking at a 10th or so of a second in qualifying moving you up or down four or five spots. And then there’s the race craft and you just have to be executing all the time. Everyone operates at a really high level, so it really pushes you along, which I like.”
As well as racing in the PCCNA, Stewart was also selected to be part of the Porsche Female Driver Development Programme Scholarship. Programmes like this are instigated to help females develop a sustainable career in motorsport and help them climb the Porsche Pyramid. It starts with Clubsport events before moving up into one-make series, followed by GT3 (World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship) and if good enough, Hypercars.
“It’s a really cool programme that Porsche Motorsport North America has put together and it’s supported by Mobile One. Select females who race in the Porsche Pyramid are offered extended support,” said the Kiwi.
“We also get the benefit of being invited to multiple Porsche workshops throughout the year. We’ve done one with a mental skills coach and we’ve done one with Penske, where we met some of the team, and more recently, we went to the Porsche Penske workshop in Charlotte. And that was really cool,” she said.
Along the way, Stewart has been fortunate to have the mentorship and help from one of New Zealand’s most successful endurance racers and team owners, Earl Bamber. His record racing Porsches and Hypercars is impressive, having won the Porsche Supercup championship, 24 Hours of Le Mans, World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, 24 Hours of Nürburgring and not forgetting the Bathurst 1000.
“He’s [Bamber] great and I’m lucky to know him and be able to kind of use him as a bit of a mentor to help me. He’s done the whole Porsche thing and now he’s at Cadillac and that depth of knowledge is amazing. And also, he’s so bloody fast.
“I actually raced for Earl when I went over to Asia with him and Will [Earl’s brother] and I got to drive one of their cup cars at Sepang.
“I bump into him [IMSA SportsCar, now racing for Cadillac] at some of the tracks as he’s at some of the same events as us. It’s great to have someone from home to chat to and still get advice,” said Stewart.
Her next race is at Indianapolis, September 18-20.