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Rookie Diary: Several Busy Weeks |
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May 1. You can’t say that the last three weeks were exactly
relaxing for Wade Cunningham. Still, he was doing what he loves
most, driving race cars. Right after the St. Pete Pro race he headed
back to New Zealand for the last two races of the Toyota Racing Series
(see the April 14 Rookie Diary). These were held on the 16th and
17th.
In the first race, Wade qualified third, but ended up finishing
fifth. The car was not everything that he had hoped for. There
was a gremlin at work, but it wasn’t clear what or where it was.
Wade did, however, have the second fastest race lap.
The starting order for the season’s final race on Sunday was based on
the Saturday race results. Needless to say this didn’t put Wade
on the pole, but when the pole sitter (Daniel Gaunt) made a bad start
Wade grabbed the lead. Although Gaunt was later able to take back
the lead, and win the race, Wade held second place until several laps
before the finish, when the gremlin took his car out of the race and
handed him a DNF. The coil wire going into one of the cylinders
failed. As Wade related, “It was clear that electrical problem
slowed us down in the first race before taking us out of the second
race.” Wade’s consolation was that he turned in the fastest lap
in the race. Then it was back to America.
After recovering from the effects of jet lag and some bad food he
crossed paths with on his way back, he was ready to slip back into his
Pro Series rookie role again.
On Sunday the 24th, Wade drove from Indianapolis down to Fort Mitchell,
Kentucky, for a day of private testing on the 1.5 mile
tri-oval Kentucky Speedway. Also testing would be Jeff Simmons,
and two drivers who would be taking their Pro Series rookie
tests. (Possibly these two rookies, who passed their test, Cody
Leibel and German Quiroga, Jr., may compete in the second half of the
Pro season.)
After that testing session Wade was back in the car and on his way to
Nashville for another scheduled day of private testing at the Nashville
Superspeedway on Thursday, the 28th. Unfortunately that was
rained out. Then Wade headed back to Indianapolis.
Saturday the 30th was an unusual day. The IndyCar race at Motegi,
Japan, was being shown on ESPN, with no preceding Pro Series
race. Wade could watch the race without all the usual IndyCar/Pro
race day things on his mind. No stranger to Japan himself, Wade
could relate to the cultural aspects the drivers were dealing with
during their stay. Wade had adjusted well to Japan, and, in fact,
won the FIA Asia Pacific Karting Championship there Suzuka in 2001.
As a driver who wants to be in IndyCars in the future, what are just a few of the things Wade observed watching this race on TV?
The track:
“Motegi looked like a reasonably difficult track because it didn’t have
too much banking and the two ends were different from each other.
It was sort of symmetrical down the middle. One end was tighter
than the other. So one end was flat out, and the other
wasn’t. It looked like a lot of people had a lot of problems in
traffic there because it didn’t have much banking and it was so
fast. But it looked like a really cool track.”
Cold tire restarts that caused a lot of accidents at Motegi:
“That was pretty similar to our Phoenix (Pro) race. We had a few people
that had that problem. There was the accident in the first corner
at the start. And then we had two cars on consecutive restarts
spinning out. So everyone has the same sort of problems.
You know, a tight radius on the exit of a corner, trying to keep down
low and getting on the gas too early. People make mistakes.”
Avoiding restart problems:
“I try to make sure I get the cleanest and straightest line off
the exit of the last corner. Then I make sure I’m on the throttle
earlier than everyone else. There’s no secret to it, I guess,
it’s just a case of timing.”
Pit stops which the Pro races don’t have:
“Everybody has to do them so it’s just a case of doing as good a job as
possible; that and the in- and out-laps. You can tell that
the good drivers are fast on their in-laps and really fast on their
out-laps on cold tires. And actually they don’t lose as much time
as the others.”
Wade turned his attention back to the Pro Series and getting ready for
the big day on May 3, when the Mendards Infiniti Pro Series cars will
have their first day of open testing at the 2.5 mile Indianapolis Motor
Speedway. Their race qualifying date is May 26th. Their
Futaba Freedom 100 race is May 27th, the same day as the IndyCar Carb
Day. The Indy 500 is on May 29.
For more about Wade see his official web site at: www.cunninghammotorsport.com. |
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