Cunningham Gets Indy 500 Call-Up

* Wade Cunningham

2012 Indianapolis 500

Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Sun May 27

2012

19-04-12

Event Preview

Cunningham Gets Indy 500 Call-Up

Wade Cunningham is the latest driver to join an elite list of Kiwis to tackle the Indianapolis 500, the 2003 World Karting and 2005 Firestone Indy Lights Series champion announcing today (Thursday April 19) that he has signed up to drive the No. 41 ECat/ABC Supply Dallara for legendary team owner A.J. Foyt in this year's May 27 race.

The team will run two Honda-powered cars, the No 41 ECat/ABS Supply Dallara with extra support from Alfe Heat Treating for Cunningham, and the No 14 ABC Supply car for regular driver Mike Conway.

Scott Dixon is New Zealand's most successful Indy 500 entrant, having won America's biggest and most prestigious motor race - now in its 96th year - in 2008. Few other Kiwis have attempted it, however, the late Denny Hulme contesting four events between 1967 and 1971, twice finishing fourth, and Graham McRae earning the Rookie of The Year award in 1973.

Cunningham, 27, made his debut in the IZOD IndyCar series last year, earning a campaign-best seventh place finish in the Kentucky 300 in October, and has extensive experience on the four corner 4km (2.5 mile) banked oval 'Brickyard' course courtesy of his three wins in the Firestone Indy Lights support race (the Freedom 100) there.

This is his first attempt at 'the big one' though and he is doing it with a team owned and managed by one of the sport's living legends, A.J. Foyt, a man who has won the event himself four times as a driver and once as a team owner.

“It's certainly an honour driving for him," Cunningham said this morning from his base in Indianapolis. “A.J. has raced everything from front engine roadsters to turbo-charged CART Indy cars at the Speedway, so he’s had an amazing career, and his is a very storied team."

Foyt is equally complementary about his new driver.

“I think Wade will do a great job for us at Indy and I think he’ll be a big asset to our team,” he said. “ I knew he was good in the little cars [Indy Lights] but what opened my eyes was his race at Kentucky in the Indy cars,” Foyt said.

In that race, Cunningham started 15th, dropped back to 23rd and was running in the top five with less than 10 laps to go. He finished seventh after getting shuffled as he tried to pass Scott Dixon for third.

Though ovals were a new experience for him when he moved from karts to cars Cunningham is now a firm fan.

“I thoroughly enjoy racing on ovals,” he says. “I know a lot of drivers that come from European backgrounds say they don’t mind them, but they don’t truly love them. I love oval racing. I think it’s a great form of entertainment and from a sporting side, I enjoy the challenge it provides on a technical level and then there’s the physical enjoyment I get when I’m racing on an oval because it’s so close and you’re always thinking. You’re not maxed out physically like you are on a road course, so you have more time and more ability to use strategy and stuff like that.

“Specifically, on the superspeedways, when the race becomes about drafting, that’s when I really enjoy the racing because you have to think about where you’re going to try to pass and when you’re going to try to pass,” Cunningham said. “You don’t want to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time, especially at a place like Indy because the straights are so long, you’ve got so much time to think and to plan. You don’t want to do the same thing all the time, you don’t want to give your hand away too early. It’s not the kind of place where you can drive at 100% all the time and get the best result because it doesn’t work like that. You have to pick when you’re going to go for it and that’s what I like.”

Cunningham gets his first taste of his new DW12 Dallara with a shakedown run at Texas Motor Speedway in the IZOD IndyCar Series Open Test on Monday May 7 then heads to Indianapolis where he completes the track’s Rookie Orientation Program for Indy cars on Thursday May 10.

The race itself will be run on Sunday May 27.

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About the sponsors

ECat, LLC

ECat is an Indianapolis-based high performance electric bike company. ECat’s target market is the

law enforcement community. Their mission is to offer a high performance alternative to traditional

gas fueled vehicles, while driving dramatic cost-savings to the police departments. ECat bikes are globally sourced and are made of high quality component parts with innovate design features. They offer quicker response times, and more efficient neighborhood policing, while being energy efficient. ECat aims to maintain the ease of maneuverability, only offered by a bike, without compromising on the technical capability or consumer appeal. Quiet, cost efficient, and amazingly effective, the ECat fleet is able to bridge the gap between automobiles and foot patrol better than anything else available today, including the standard pedal mountain bike.

ABC Supply Co. Inc.

Headquartered in Beloit, Wis., ABC Supply was founded by Ken and Diane Hendricks in 1982. The company has more than 450 branches in 44 states and is dedicated exclusively to serving professional contractors. ABC Supply has distinguished itself by following a simple guiding principle – take care of contractors better than any other distributor. It accomplishes this by being a “people-first” company that treats its associates with respect and gives them the tools they need to succeed. As a five-time winner of the Gallup Great Workplace Award, ABC Supply is one of only a handful of companies in the world to have earned this honor every year since its inception in 2007. More information is available at www.abcsupply.com.

Alfe Heat Treating

Alfe Heat Treating believes innovation to be a vital element in our efforts to remain an industry leader. That's why all Alfe facilities are equipped with leading-edge technology such as computerized Automated Process Controls (APC) and microprocessor-based temperature controls, ensuring the most accurate and efficient monitoring and processing of every stage in the heat treating cycle. Learn more at www.al-fe.com

ENDS

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