Wade Cunningham

Wade Grant Cunningham (born 19 August 1984) is a racing driver from Auckland, New Zealand who competed in the Firestone Indy Lights Series.

Wade Cunningham
Nationality	New Zealander
Born	(1984-08-19) 19 August 1984 (age 38) Auckland, New Zealand
Related to	Mitch Cunningham (brother)
Firestone Indy Lights Series
Years active	2005–2010
Teams	Brian Stewart Racing AFS Racing Alliance Motorsports Sam Schmidt Motorsports
Starts	64
Wins	8
Podiums	30
Poles	9
Best finish	1st in 2005
Previous series
2004	Formula Ford Zetec USA
Championship titles
2001 2003 2005	Asia-Pacific Championship World Karting Championship Indy Lights Series

Racing career

Indy Lights

 

Cunningham driving his Indy Lights car on the Streets of St. Petersburg in 2005

Cunningham's professional career began when he won the Karting World Championship in 2003.

The following year he moved to the United States and competed in the Cooper Tires Formula Ford Zetec Championship in which he finished 5th after winning four consecutive poles and seven podium finishes. He won the 2005 Indy Lights Series championship in his rookie season for Brian Stewart Racing despite only winning a single race.

He continued with the team in 2006 and won 3 more races, including the Freedom 100 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (becoming the first driver from New Zealand to do so) and placed third in championship points despite missing two races due to an emergency appendectomy. While missing out on the drivers title the team was still able to claim their second consecutive entrants championship because they were able to replace Wade with a reserve driver for those events. He narrowly missed the title by 11 points and would have easily clinched his second drivers championship had he started either of those events.

He drove in the A1 Grand Prix series as practice driver for A1 Team New Zealand in the round in Taupo, New Zealand and China.^[1] He returned to the Indy Lights Series in 2007 for AGR-AFS Racing where he finished 3rd.

IndyCar Series

 

Cunningham (inside) racing in Indy Lights in 2008

In December 2007 Cunningham tested an IndyCar Series machine for the first time at Sebring as a reward for his results with their satellite team in the Indy Lights Series, driving the Andretti Green Racing IndyCar normally driven by Marco Andretti.^[2]

Wade's brother Mitch made his Firestone Indy Lights Series debut (formerly the Indy Pro Series) in 2008 for Brian Stewart Racing, the same team with whom Wade had his initial success. Wade made a handful of starts in the series in 2008, both for Brian Stewart and in the Mid-Ohio double-header for the new Alliance Motorsports team.

He signed on to return to the series full-time in 2009 driving for Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Upon joining the team, he became the first driver to win a second Freedom 100 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Cunningham won again that race in 2010 in a one-race deal for the Schmidt team, becoming the only three-time winner of the Freedom 100.

Sam Schmidt announced 11 February that Cunningham would make his Izod IndyCar Series debut in 2011 with Sam Schmidt Motorsports in a three race deal. He qualified 8th on debut at Texas Motor Speedway for the Firestone Texas Twin 275s and posted a season and career best IndyCar finish at the Indy Kentucky 300 when he finished 7th a mere 0.702 seconds from the lead.

Racing record

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2006–07	A1 Team New Zealand	NED SPR	NED FEA	CZE SPR	CZE FEA	BEI SPR	BEI FEA	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	IDN SPR	IDN FEA	NZL SPR PO	NZL FEA PO	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	MEX SPR	MEX FEA	SHA SPR PO	SHA FEA PO	GBR SPR	GBR SPR	2nd	93

American open–wheel racing results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Indy Lights

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
2005	Brian Stewart Racing	HMS 4	PHX 3	STP 2	INDY 2	TXS 2	IMS 2	NSH 4	MIL 2	KTY 2	PPIR 5	SNM 2	CHI 10	WGL 3	FON 1			1st	504
2006	Brian Stewart Racing	HMS 10	STP1	STP2	INDY 1	WGL 2	IMS 16	NSH 5	MIL 2	KTY 3	SNM1 1	SNM2 4	CHI 1					3rd	379
2007	AGR-AFS Racing	HMS 24	STP1 9	STP2 2	INDY 23	MIL 12	IMS1 4	IMS2 21	IOW 2	WGL1 1	WGL2 2	NSH 4	MDO 2	KTY 3	SNM1 16	SNM2 11	CHI 17	3rd	423
2008	Brian Stewart Racing	HMS 9	STP1	STP2	KAN 5	INDY 3	MIL 12	IOW	WGL1	WGL2	NSH							19th	169
	Alliance Motorsports											MDO1 12	MDO2 2	KTY	SNM1	SNM2
	Integra Motorsports w/ CGRT																CHI 24
2009	Sam Schmidt Motorsports	STP1 16	STP2 11	LBH 20	KAN 2	INDY 1	MIL 6	IOW 2	WGL 19	TOR 7	EDM 6	KTY 1	MDO 14	SNM 12	CHI 4	HMS 6		4th	416
2010	Sam Schmidt Motorsports	STP	ALA	LBH	INDY 1	IOW	WGL	TOR	EDM	MDO	SNM	CHI	KTY	HMS 3				15th	87

IndyCar Series

Year	Team	Chassis	No.	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Rank	Points
2011	Sam Schmidt Motorsports	Dallara	99	Honda	STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY	TXS1 29	TXS2 20	MIL	IOW	TOR	EDM	MDO	NHM	SNM	BAL	MOT			37th	36
			17																		KTY 7	LVS C
2012	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Dallara DW12	41		STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY 31	DET	TXS	MIL	IOW	TOR	EDM	MDO	SNM	BAL					28th	29
			14																FON 14

References

1. SuperPoints A1GP Taupo, New Zealand: Driver sign-on, A1GP.com, 18 January 2007
2. "Cunningham tests with Andretti Green". autosport.com. 21 December 2007. Retrieved 22 December 2007.

External links

• Wade Cunningham career summary at DriverDB.com
• Official website
• Wade Cunningham Indy Pro Series/Firestone Indy Lights Statistics

Sporting positions
Preceded by Thiago Medeiros	Infiniti Pro Series Champion 2005	Succeeded by Jay Howard