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Rookie Diary: Who's Inside Wade's Helmet? |
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March 27. Who’s inside Wade’s helmet? The answer, of course, is
Wade, Wade Cunningham, as it says on the side of his helmet. But
who is Wade, and how did he get to the Menards Infiniti Pro Series as a
rookie member of the Brian Stewart Racing Team? That’s what we
wanted to know, and think you should know also.
To find out, who better to ask than Wade. For starters, he is a
20 year old native of Auckland, New Zealand. At the moment, Wade
lives in Indianapolis when his racing doesn’t take him elsewhere.
That should tell you something about Wade right there.
As for his journey from New Zealand to the Pro Series, Wade explained
that his trip started when he was ten. That was when he first
became interested in karting.
At that time, New Zealanders were aware that karting could be a pathway
for bigger achievements. The racing world knew a famous Brazilian
driver who had started out in karting, and had won the Formula One
World Championship in 1988, 1990 and 1991. His name was Aryton
Senna. He drove for a team with a New Zealand name.
McLaren! It was the team that New Zealander Bruce McLaren had
started.
Wade’s first three years in karting included learning about the cars,
driving them, racing them, learning about competition, and meeting the
key New Zealand people in the sport.
As Wade related, “I didn’t really get serious about karting until 1997
when New Zealand adopted the international CIK karting
categories. One category was for juniors and one for
seniors. That was the real start of everything for me.
Because with that you could go from New Zealand to Australia and race
in the same categories. And then, if you were good enough, you
could go on to Europe, which was the pinnacle of karting in the world.”
Now Wade knew where he wanted to go.
And go he did! In 1998 Wade won the CIK New Zealand Junior
Continental A Pro Series Championship. The following year it was
the CIK Junior Continental A Championship. But it didn’t stop
there. Year 2000 saw Wade take his first international step,
across to Australia. There he finished 6th in the Australia
Oceanic Championship, gaining even more experience.
When 2001 arrived, Wade was ready for bigger things. As a warm up
he won the CIK Trophy of New Zealand. When that series ended he
stepped onto a larger world stage. Wade went to Japan for the
biggest race outside of Europe, the CIK FIA Asia Pacific Championship
at Suzuka Japan. How good was Wade by then? Good enough to
win that Championship also.
2001 had been a big year for New Zealand in the international world of
open wheel racing. In addition to Wade’s success in Japan another
New Zealander, who was four years older than Wade, Scott Dixon, also
made news. Scott was the CART Rookie of the Year. Although
Wade did not know Scott then, their paths would later cross.
With his Japan victory Wade’s opportunities and his life were about to
change dramatically. He had attracted the attention of CRG, one
of the three largest European karting manufacturers. They invited
Wade to come to Italy in 2002 and drive for their factory team!
This was a huge opportunity for Wade to compete with and against the
best karting drivers and teams in the world. With his Japanese
victory Wade knew he was good. With the CRG invitation he knew
others on the world stage thought he was good also. Now he wanted to
find out just how good he was, and to become even better. And CRG was a
karting name that had been on the pathway for even greater success by
some big names in racing – Alex Zanardi and Michael Schumacher.
For Wade going to Eurpoe was the opportunity of his young
lifetime. What Wade didn’t know, though, was that it was an
opportunity that would test him to his very limits. An
opportunity that would ask him just how serious, committed and
dedicated he was to becoming the best in this sport. How hard was
he willing to work to try to become numero uno?
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