01-02-06
Cunningham returns to the United States to defend 2005 title
New Zealand racing driver Wade Cunningham returned to the United States this week to prepare to defend his 2005 Indy Racing League Pro Series title.
Cunningham, 20, will again drive for the Ontario, Canada-based Brian Stewart Racing Team in the re-named Indy Pro Series. He will be joined on the team by rookie Brett Van Blankers and Knoxville Nationals Fast Track to Indy Rookie of the Year Geoff Dodge.
This season's Indy Pro Series (formerly the Menards Infiniti Pro Series) will consist of 12 rounds, six on ovals, two (the first of two 'double-header' meetings) on a converted street course and four (including the other double header meeting) on what the Americans call 'road' courses (permanent circuits).
Cunningham, who added a third CIK Trophy of New Zealand kart title to his CV last weekend before packing and getting on a plane this week, says that returning to the re-named Indy Pro Series was one of a number of options he considered.
That it became the best option quickly became clear when he spoke to teams about moving up to the Indy Racing League (where fellow Kiwi Scott Dixon is one of the leading lights.)
"There were just no drives going there, " Cunningham said on the eve of his departure. "The good seats are all taken and the drivers are just not moving on."
Cunningham decided after winning the World Karting Championship title that his racing future lay in the United States and his key goal remains a place on the grid in the Indy 500.
There was good reason for him to return to the Indy Pro Series however. Last year's was the most competitive Pro Series to date, the battles Cunningham regularly fought with third-generation racer Marco Andretti, oval specialist Travis Gregg and veteran Jeff Simmons finally focusing the attention of the US racing world on the category.
The result was immediate, with the Indy Racing League announcing a trimmed down and better focused 6-oval/6-street or road course schedule and sweetening the pie by trebling the prize-money purse from $US1 million to $US3 million dollars.
That has already prompted one IRL team to set up a Pro Series satellite, Eddie Cheever Racing, owned by former Formula 1 driver and 1998 Indy 500 winner Eddie Cheever Jnr, announcing last week that he would expand his operation to run a Pro Series car for 2005 series rookie Chris Festa.
Cunningham is also realistic about his goal of moving up to the IRL series and the Indy 500, pointing out that despite his pace and stunning lights-to-flag win at the final round of the 2005 Menards series at the California Speedway, he still has a lot to learn about racing on oval courses.
"If you look at," he says, "I've only done 10 oval races. To win more I need to do more."
The Indy Pro Series is the main support category for the Indy Racing League, the premier open-wheeler category in the United States. The series, which pits drivers of 3.5 litre V8 Nissan engined Dallara single-seaters against each other on oval and road courses is the main feeder category for the IRL and every race is beamed into 88 million US homes on ESPN2.
This year's new-look schedule includes the two new 'double-header' meetings (at St Petersburg in Florida and Infineon Raceway in Northern California) and again supports both the Indy 500 and the US Formula 1 Grand Prix (which runs on a purpose-built road course inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway).
Florida hosts the first round at the Homestead-Miami oval on Sunday March 26.
