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Photo Caption: Steve Welk drove the number 57 UMW Motorwerks car to his first top-10 of the season. (Photo Courtesy Jacques-O-Lot Photography)
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“Steve Welk Score First MX-5 Cup Top-Ten for UMW Motorwerks”
Mosport, Ontario – Steve Welk scored a sixth-place finish for UMW Motorwerks in the second round of the Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup series held May 16 - 18. Competing at the high-speed Mosport International Raceway, Welk stormed from a tenth-place starting spot to fourth on the first lap and held on for a sixth-place finish in the rain-soaked race. The top-ten capped off a weekend that saw the UMW Motorwerks team continue to establish themselves in the MX-5 Cup Championship.
The event started off with a series test day at the historic Canadian circuit. With five sessions the UMW team worked through several different setups on the McLaren-orange Mazda MX-5. At the end of the day the whole team felt confident that they had closed the gap to the lead teams.
As official practice rolled around on Saturday, Welk was able to show that the team had improved over Road Atlanta. Welk ran eighth and eleventh in the two practice sessions as the UMW team continued to try different setups.
Sunday would be a busy time as both qualifying and the race were going to be run in the same day. Adding to the suspense, the typically unpredictable Mosport weather was going to be a factor as the weather report called for a 50 percent chance of rain. The morning qualifying session would be run in the dry. A quick lap early was good enough for the top five but without a consistent drafting partner, the Wisconsin native slowly fell down the order. Welk qualified the number 57 MX-5 a disappointing 13th on the grid, just one second off of the pole and four tenths of a second out of fifth. Post race tech would move the UMW car up to eleventh on the grid.
After qualifying, the clouds slowly started to gather over the Mosport circuit and 30 minutes before the race the skies opened up. Before the start Welk would move up to tenth when a car came late to the grid. For second race in a row the karting veteran would have a terrific start. Welk moved up six positions after making a few passes and avoiding a spinning car to be fourth at the end of lap one. After battling for the first few laps for third, Welk’s tires began to go away due to the wear they endured at Road Atlanta. Welk found himself seventh at halfway, keeping the UWM car under control with an increasingly wet track and deteriorating tires. Holding on to sixth in the final corners, Welk scored his and UMW Motorwerks’ best MX-5 Cup finish to date.
“This was a very educational weekend for our team,” Welk said after the water-logged event. “We were able to learn a lot on the car and closed the gap to the lead cars. Qualifying was a little disappointing but the draft is so important in these cars that it makes running without a partner tough. I can’t thank the UMW crew enough, I don’t think they stopped working from the moment we opened the trailer door when we got to the track.”
UWM Motorwerks now enters the summer break for the MX-5 season with the next Championship event at the end of the July. However the UMW crew will not take a break as they will return to the SCCA Chicago Region June Sprints June 21 - 22 in the D-Prepared class with their MX-5 car. The team and Welk will look to go two spots better from their third place finish in the Spec Miata Class last year at the classic summer event.
Established in 2008, UMW Motorwerks is the combination of two racing families; the Dresang family's UEMSI Motorwerks and the Welk family's Welk Motorsports. UMW Motorwerks will compete in the extremely competitive SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup Championship. Driver Steve Welk will campaign the team's vividly-painted McLaren-orange #57 car as the championship crosses North America.
UMW Motorwerks aims to establish itself as a successful pro-racing organization as it strives to win races and fans alike on the Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup Championship series tour. www.uemsimotorwerks.com
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