Back in 2007 New Zealand driver Wade Cunningham qualified on pole and led the most laps at the Iowa Speedway round of the Firestone Indy Lights championship only to be passed for the race lead with five laps to go by Alex Lloyd in the Sam Schmidt Motorsport Lucas Oils car.
Two years on it is Cunningham behind the wheel of the Lucas Oils car and the 24-year-old Kiwi says the plan this year is to finish the job.
"In 2007 we got very close but really, Alex was just biding his time. With the Lucas Oils cars it could be me in that position this time around."
With two poles and a race win already this season, former World Karting Champion Cunningham, who won the Firestone Indy Lights championship in 2005, is already up to fourth place in the points standings this season just 35 points behind leader J.R. Hildebrand.
And another good result in the first night race of the the 2009 season at the Iowa Speedway on Saturday night (US time) will set him up for the next three road course rounds of this year's series which start at Watkins Glen in upstate New York in early July.
In his favour is the fact that he already has experience both of the unique seven-eighths of a mile (1.5 km) Iowa oval and racing under lights.
"It's certainly going to make it interesting, says Cunningham of the Saturday evening format of this weekend's event."We raced under lights at Kentucky in 2007 but I'm probably the only driver in the field this year who has (raced under lights) in these cars."
See also
- Cunningham sixth at Milwaukee
2009 Firestone Indy Lights Championship
Points after Rnd 6 of 15
1. JR Hildebrand 198 points
2. Sebastian Saavedra 188
3. Mario Romancini 179
4. Wade Cunningham 163
5. Jonathan Summerton 162
6. James Hinchcliffe 156
