|
Rookie Diary: Cunningham 1st Over 190 at IMS |
|
|
|
May 12. Last week we saw the story that Jaime Camara and Wade
Cunningham had broken the 190 mph barrier for Menards Infiniti Pro
Series cars at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Camara had the
fastest lap at 190.449. Knowing that breaking IMS speed
barriers, in even 10 mph increments, is a big deal, we wondered
which driver broke the barrier first. The article didn’t say, and
we could not find any details on the IRL web site.
So, being at the IMS during the month of May we paid a visit to Timing
and Scoring to find the answer. The answer is: Wade Cunningham.
Wade turned in his 190.009 mph on lap 56 of the 75 he did in the
morning session. Camara’s morning fastest was 188.176.
Jaime notched his 190.449 on his 47th of 67 laps in the afternoon
session.
Who else looked especially fast? Chris Festa, Marco Andretti, Marty Roth and
Travis Gregg were all in the 189’s. None of the other 16 drivers reached the189’s.
To find out more about his record breaking day at the IMS we asked Wade what it was like.
He explained that Tuesday morning started with a van ride around the track with
Rick Mears as the commentator. “It wasn’t compulsory, but it was
worth while. It was interesting to go around and see what
somebody else thinks of the place.”
Wade’s initial impression of driving the track was that, “Surprisingly
when you are going so fast it’s not as big as it looks when you’re just
standing there. That was one of the big things I noticed.
It seems when you’re driving it flat out it seems quite narrow, even
though it’s not. You just use the whole track, which is cool.”
How did he handle the turns? “I took a pretty typical road racing
line (going into turns 1 and 2, and 3 and 4). You go from the
outside of the track (having come down the main straight), and you
sweep in and apex the corner. Then you use all the track on the
exit and you go back out to the wall. Then you take the next
corner and it’s just like that.” Wade said that overall he found it
easy to go flat out around the whole track.
Easy was not where Wade started, however, when he took his first Pro
car ride back in February. The Pro cars were new and faster than
those Wade had driven before. Also, Phoenix was the first time
Wade drove on an oval track. “I was uncomfortable at the Phoenix Test
in the West, and even at Homestead. It took me the first twenty
laps of the Homestead race to feel comfortable. (Wade ran the fastest
race lap before that race was over, 188.139 mph.) Going back to
Phoenix the car wasn’t great. After the Phoenix race we tested at
Nashville, and I was comfortable. Of course, St. Pete was great
in terms of the speed. I can say it was the same with my testing
at Kentucky a couple of weeks ago. Now I jump in the car and I’m
100% on it.”
Wind is always a potential issue at the IMS, and Wade had his first
introduction to this phenomena. He said, “It affected my lap time
more than it affected the handling of my car. My car was pretty
good. We can always improve it, but it was pretty balanced so the
wind shift didn’t bother me a lot. Only certain parts of the
track seemed affected on Tuesday, like where the grandstands I think
have been cut out over by 3 and 4. It seemed that the wind
affected the car more there than it does say in 1 and 2, but we’ll see
in the future.”
Perhaps the most interesting first time experience for Wade was driving
in traffic on the IMS. The sheer size and configuration of this
2.5 mile oval track with its grand stands that wrap all the way around
from turn three/four all the way down the main straight and then around
turns one/two that makes driving a unique experience. Wade was no
exception. “The tow you get down the straight-aways is massive.
Even when you are half a straight behind a guy you get a draft off of
him. If you are half way down the main straight and some one’s in turn
one they are affecting your car, and you’re going to be going quicker
than you would by yourself.”
Wade went on to elaborate on the air turbulence effects. “You don’t
notice a tow that far away but you see it on the watch. (Wade’s fastest
lap was 47.3661 seconds.) Say you are running 27.7’s (the 27.7 seconds
is a sector time) by yourself and then there’s this guy who appears
half a straight in front of you. You might start running 27.58 or
27.6’s all of a sudden, and you might think, wow, I’m going really good
now. Driving on an oval like this track you start building up
speed and get quicker and quicker until you can hold a speed. But
then if you lose that draft over the next few laps you’ll probably fall
back down to doing 27.7’s again”.
Passing on the long IMS straights was also a different experience for
Wade. “At Homestead (a 1.5 mile oval) when I was coming through
the traffic it was
a lot easier to time passes because you’d always just be able to get
past them right at the corner or right before the corner. At Indy
you are going in a straight line so much further, and if you are behind
a car you have to be smart about where and when you make that pass, a
third of the way down the main straight, half way down, or just before
the end.”
What was Wade’s first over all impression of driving the a famous IMS
oval? “I guess coming from New Zealand you don’t have that sense
of the history about the 500 race. I didn’t grow up following
that or Formula One as I was pretty busy with karting. So right
now it’s one of the races for the Pro Series championship points
“But, he said, “ it was good, you know. It was cool!”
Wade’s comments on Indy reminded us of those of Rick Mears and his
first visit to the IMS. Rick spent a lot of time off road racing when
he was younger and not following the 500. The funny thing about
the IMS is that the sense of history grows pretty quickly on drivers
after they run here, especially when they have good success. We
expect that Wade will fall in that category before long. After
all, Wade Cunningham just made some history at the IMS.
For more information about Wade see his official web site: www.cunninghammotorsport.com |
IPS Archive