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Rookie Diary: A Quick Race in New Zealand |
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April 14. What does a rookie driver in the Menards Infiniti Pro
Series do during the seven weeks between the April 3, St. Petersburg
race and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway race on May 27?
Last week, on Tuesday night, Wade Cunningham boarded a plane and headed
back to New Zealand – to race. He will be driving in
the final round of the exciting new Toyota Racing Series. Remember,
it’s fall there, not spring.
The Series is an open wheel road race venue, which has a concept
similar to our Infiniti Pro Series. That is, the cars all have
the same chassis, engine and tires. The races are about the
drivers, not the cars. Their monocoque carbon fiber chassis looks
very similar to the Toyota F1 car. The engines are Toyota 1.8 liter,
in-line four cylinder, and generate 200 bhp. Toyota describes the
Series as a driver track to Formula One. Maybe Toyota can do a
lot to make that happen. They do have an F1 team, which former
Brian Stewart driver, Christiano da Matta, drove for last year.
The NZ Series, which started in early January, is composed of six
rounds of three races each. The races are held on both the North
and South Islands and run on five different circuits. The field
has been running about 17 cars. The last round is this coming
weekend, April 16/17.
Wade explained his involvement in this Series. “That’s the season
ending race. We just organized to do as many of the rounds as we
could. Someone else put everything together. They bought the car,
leased the engine, got the sponsorship and really provided
everything. Because I had raced in America last year they offered
the deal to us. So, I have been able to race in the Series.
Because I couldn’t race in three of the rounds, though, I’m out of the
championship. Still, I wanted to go back for the last one.
It’s good exposure for me.”
Wade raced the first two rounds in January, then had to head to the
U.S. Having missed three rounds due to Pro Series commitments,
Wade is not in contention for the Championship and Chris Amon
Trophy.
In the first round, Wade’s car had mechanical problems for the first
two races. The third race saw him finish fourth. The second
round was more like it for Wade. In the first race he was the
fastest qualifier, and won the race.
Wade described his non-holiday trip for the final round by saying, “ I
will get back (to NZ) on Thursday, take Thursday and Friday
to relax (recover from any jet lag) and then start getting
everything organized on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. We’ll
probably set up the car on Wednesday and Thursday. We practice on
Friday, and then Saturday and Sunday are the races.” Then Wade
hops right back on the plane and returns to Indianapolis next
Tuesday. With the Brian Stewart Team headquarters and shop in
Pefferlaw, Ontario (north of Toronto), Wade will be doing more
international traveling before the IMS Pro race.
(For more about Wade visit his official web site at: www.cunninghammotorsport.com)
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