Martina Ward had her best performance yet in the Massimo Tyres 5Club Racing MX5 Cup at Oulton Park, showing off a strong qualifying performance and scoring two top 15 finishes, including a career-best 12th place in race two.
Martina Ward enjoyed her best weekend to date in the Massimo Tire 5Club Racing MX5 Cup with two top 15 finishes, including 12th in Race 2, at Oulton Park.
Ward overcame the challenges of a tight, technical circuit to qualify in a season-best 13th place and then showed some excellent racing technique in both races, while Martina finished 15th in Race 1 and then put in a smart run in Race 2 to move up three positions to finish the day in a career-best 12th place.
For Ward, this season in the Massimo Tire 5Club Racing MX5 Cup has been promising with Martina’s speed often matching those inside the top 10, so her next goal was to translate this pace into strong qualifying performances and compete inside the top 15 consistently.
Oulton Park was set to be a big challenge for Martina as it was her first foray into the technical Cheshire circuit. Oulton Park’s narrow course shares some similarities with Cadwell Park, with the undulations of both courses providing further contrast.
The Massimo Tire 5Club Racing MX5 Cup qualifying session was the first on-track action at Oulton Park on Saturday morning, followed by two races in the afternoon. Ward started the session well, taking her first flying lap to quickly place herself in the top 15. She continued to improve as the session progressed, recording a lap time of 2:09.673 to achieve her best qualifying result of the season and qualify 13th overall.
Due to a tight day’s schedule, the opening race of the weekend took place late on Saturday morning, with Ward starting from 13th on the grid. It was a tough start for Martina, who dropped to 16th at the end of the first lap, but she was on a fast pace to make up the lost positions. This allowed her to pull away from Mary Bernard on the second lap, allowing her to focus on the front rather than defending against the drivers behind her.
Overtaking was difficult at Oulton Park in the first half of the race, and although Ward was passing the drivers in front of him he could only manage 16th place, but on lap 5 Martina overtook Steven Robinson and then caught Adrian Johnson off the track to move up to 14th place.
The next lap saw Ward set his fastest lap of the weekend so far, looking to maintain the gap to the recovering drivers behind him, Johnson and Robinson worked together to get ahead of Ward again on the penultimate lap, but Martina had a strong finishing lap to overtake Matthew Short and finish the opening race of the weekend in 15th place.
Following a strong opening race at Oulton Park, Ward was in 15th place in the second race and was close to finishing in the top 10. After dropping back to 17th at the end of the first lap, Martina was determined to push forward and soon overtook Stephen Robinson for 16th place.
As the drivers ahead of her jockeyed for position, Ward was in relatively clean air, which allowed her to be faster than the next six competitors and quickly closed the gap on the next group.
On lap five she was in a position to make a move, overtaking Mary Bernard, Ian Tomlinson and Matthew Short to move up to third place and then up to 13th place. Her late surge in the race continued when Scott Leach pitted on lap seven, allowing Ward to move up to 12th place, her best position of the season.
Martina made a quick final lap and took the chequered flag in 12th place, her best result to date in the Massimo Tires 5 Club Racing MX5 Cup.
Ward enjoyed a breakthrough weekend on his first visit to Oulton Park, a circuit that often poses major challenges for first-time competitors, while Martina was able to back up his best qualifying result of the season with two top 15 results, including an impressive 12th place in race two.
Having made steady progress towards a top 10 finish, Ward will be looking to improve further at the final round of the Massimo Tires 5 Club Racing MX5 Cup at Donington Park on Saturday 12th October.
