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This young, up and coming New Zealand duo are making waves in the Karting Racing world.  Say hello to the Stewart Sisters Racing team, our latest featured drivers!

Ashleigh Stewart – Stewart Sisters Racing

The older of the pair, eighteen year-old Ashleigh Stewart first attended the races when she was just 6 weeks old.   Growing up around her father and grandfather’s racing background, Ashleigh couldn’t wait for her turn behind the wheel, getting her racing start at the age of 10, after begging her father for 2 years.   Now in her eighth year of racing, Ashleigh competes in the Rotax Light Karting division.  

“I guess for me it’s normally surprise when I tell people what it is I do, I don’t fit the typical type of person everyone  expects would love motorsport.  I love fashion, makeup and motorsport, they don’t usually go together.   For a long time, I was not particularly competitive and everyone was my friend. Recently I’ve begun to race towards the front of the field and things have gotten more tense. I’ve had some criticism on social media but it generally backfires as there are more people who make positive comments that negative. The negative comments just make me want to race harder and to be better.”      

Being treated just like everyone else on the circuit is par for the course, and Ashleigh takes her off-track duties seriously as well, putting in work mechanically to aid in her kart setup, and keeping everything clean and performing well.   In addition to her on-track training, she also keeps up with her fitness to handle the demands of racing.  

I do a lot of fitness training at the gym. Fitness is really important for the long test days and also the longer races. My trainer is ex army so he pushes us hard but makes it fun at the same time and I really enjoy the challenge.  I build muscle quickly so for me its about keeping a balance between weight training for strength and cardio for the endurance.  It is important to be able to keep your concentration up at all times and being really fit is essential.”

I’ve had good pace over the past two years and I’d like to do a better job of converting that in to results. This year I want to get some solid podiums and work towards a move to cars in a year or two.” 

 The best piece of advice I got — and advice I often pass on, is to always show up as yourself. If you like pretty things and to look good then make sure you carry that through to your racing. There is no need to look like one of the boys to be  successful in Motorsport.”

 Madeline Stewart – Stewart Sisters Racing

 Sixteen year-old Madeline Stewart followed closely behind her older sister in the family sport, taking up driving in 2010 and following in a very similar path as Ashleigh. 

At the beginning I was very slow but we kept going racing doing as many meetings as possible. It was not until 2013 when I moved in to Juniors that I started to show any pace. We had the opportunity to go and race in Australia at the end of 2013 and that was a big boost. We brought the experience from racing in bigger fields back to NZ and in 2014 I started to race competitively.”

Tom has some special techniques he uses to get the best out of the drivers in his team. Racing as part of a team has really improved my driving. I’ve had a few top five qualifying in the really competitive Rotax Pro Tour in Australia and Pole positions in NZ. Recently I’ve started racing in KZ2. They are the formula 1 of karting and are really challenging to drive. I raced at the CIK-FIA Asia Pacific KZ Championship in Macau as part of a 6 person TWM team.”

The hardest thing has been fitting in school with my racing particularly with the international travel. Education is very important to me as well as my racing. I have to do well at school over the next two years to ensure I can go to University when I want to as well as it being a really critical two years for my Motorsport career.  Motorsport is as much a mental game as it is physical. The physical side is relatively easy to overcome with an good exercise program but the mental side is much more difficult especially for a woman. You’ve got to work hard not to let the external factors affect your performance. Having a great coach helps, especially one that treats you as an equal with your team mates.”

Being one of the few females in the sport hasn’t really affected Madeline much directly.   Though the attention of being a young woman on the track comes with added pressures and sometimes judgemental critics that examine performances under a microscope, she hasn’t experienced much negativity related to her gender.

I’ve only had one major incident with another competitor telling me I should get out of the way and that females should not be allowed to race. When I was younger there was a general feeling that I was not as good because I am female. All that just made me want to do better and push myself harder. Now days I get mostly positive reactions, I am just as fast as the boys and have earned  their respect. The funniest experience was in Macau where I got lots of attention for being the only female in KZ. I had lots of people wanting to take selfies with me.”

For 2017, Madeline’s goal is to qualify for the Rotax World Grand Final in Portugal and to place in the top 10 for the KZ2 division.   Future goals include more KZ2 races across Europe, and an aspiration to visit the United States for the SKUSA Super Nats in Las Vegas, NV.  She aspires to drive karts professionally in Europe eventually, or has considered a move to cars possible one day.

Best of Luck to Stewart Sisters Racing!