November 21, 2006.  As the Indy Pro Series’ first ever returning Champion for a full season, what would you think of essentially spotting the rest of the field a three-race handicap, a quarter of the season’s 12 races,  before taking on the challenge of trying to show them that even with that disadvantage you could still dominate the season?  That is what 22 year old Wade Cunningham did this year, although that handicap was not quite what he had in mind before the season started.  [Below: The IMS Freedom 100 Winner. Photo Credit: Chris Jones, IRL.]

Although Wade did not win the championship again this year, he did dominate, yes, dominate, everything else in the Pro Series.  That included most race wins, most poles, most races led, most laps led, most combined practice sessions led, and helped deliver to his team owner, Brian Stewart, the 2006 Pro Series Championship Team Award and for the second year in a row, the right to field a car again next year bearing the number “1” .  

Wade also won his poles and races on both road and oval courses.  Further, on the ovals he won on the shortest, Milwaukee’s 1.0 mile [pole], and the biggest, the IMS 2.5 mile [pole, race] as well as in between size tracks, Nashville’s 1.33 mile [pole], 1.5 mile Kentucky [pole] and Chicago [race] – and last year on the California 2.0 mile [race] tracks.  By our definition, that certainly categorized him as a complete IPS driver.

In return for all of this, Wade Cunningham received the 2006 Pro Series “Top Driver” Award.  And then there was his $222,250 in earnings.  But these achievements did not come easy.  And we dare to say that only a returning champion of Wade’s talent, experience, persistence and determination could have pulled off what he accomplished.  

It is a truly remarkable story, and we’d like to have our readers hear it from the ‘05 Champion himself in a conversation fromthetrack.com recently had with Wade, but first some background.