Education
The following year he moved to the United States and competed in the Cooper Tires Formula Ford Zetec Championship in which he finished 5th after winning four consecutive poles and seven podium finishes.
The following year he moved to the United States and competed in the Cooper Tires Formula Ford Zetec Championship in which he finished 5th after winning four consecutive poles and seven podium finishes.
Industry Lights
While missing out on the drivers title the team was still able to claim their second consecutive entrants championship because they were able to replace Wade with a reserve driver for those events. He narrowly missed the title by 11 points and would have easily clinched his second drivers championship had he started either of those events. He drove in the First Rate (at Lloyd's) Grand Prix series as practice driver for First Rate (at Lloyd's) Team New Zealand in the round in Taupo, New Zealand and China.
He returned to the Industry Lights Series in 2007 for AGR-AFS Racing where he finished 3rd.
IndyCar Series
In December 2007 Cunningham tested an IndyCar Series machine for the first time at Sebring as a reward for his results with their satellite team in the Industry Lights Series, driving the Andretti Green Racing IndyCar normally driven by Marco Andretti. Wade"s brother Mitch made his Firestone Industry Lights Series debut (formerly the Industry Pro Series) in 2008 for Brian Stewart Racing, the same team with whom Wade had his initial success.
Wade made a handful of starts in the series in 2008, both for Brian Stewart and in the Mid-Ohio double-header for the new Alliance Motorsports team He signed on to return to the series full-time in 2009 driving for Sam Schmidt Motorsports.
Sam Schmidt announced 11 February that Cunningham would make his Izod IndyCar Series debut in 2011 with Sam Schmidt Motorsports in a three race deal.
He qualified 8th on debut at Texas Motor Speedway for the Firestone Texas Twin 275s and posted a season and career best IndyCar finish at the Industry Kentucky 300 when he finished 7th a mere 0.702 seconds from the lead. Complete First Rate (at Lloyd's) Grand Prix results
American open–wheel racing results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)
= Industry Lights = IndyCar Series =.