Cunningham Second in Action Packed Race in Kansas

The race was won by Sebastian Saavedra.

The series champion in his rookie year in 2005, Cunningham was again one of the pace-setters in 2006 and 2007 before only competing in selected races as he chased an Indycar driver last year.

His return with the series top team, Sam Schmidt Motorsports in the #11 Lucas Oils cars, was widely anticipated but food poisoning put paid to any chance he had at the double-header first round at St Petersburg in Florida at the beginning of April, and he was forced out of the second round at Long Beach in California a fortnight later when an alternator mounting bracket on his car's engine broke.

This weekend though the former World Karting Champion was immediately on the pace in practice then only eventual race winner Saavedra could get close in qualifying, the young Kiwi claiming his eighth career and fifth oval pole round the high speed 2.4 km oval with a combined time over two laps of 58.3812.

Cunningham then went on to lead the 160 km race for the first 10 laps before being passed by Saavedra on the first restart. Teammate Ana Beatriz briefly pushed him back to third place on lap 41 but lost the advantage when she tried to pass Saavedra for the lead.

From that point on Cunningham remained in second place with Mario Romancini third, Beatriz fourth and British driver Martin Plowman fifth.

Afterwards Cunningham told reporters;
 
"We're disappointed not to get the win after qualifying on the pole but looking at the high downforce lap times in practice and then looking at the race, we just didn't have the strongest car today. Sebastian was able to run the pace he wanted. No one else could get around him. I tried my best more than once, but I just couldn't get the pass completed on the outside when we were running two-wide, especially with the way the wind worked and the gearing."

The result elevates Cunningham to 11th place in the 2009 series points standings with 84 points just 46 behind new series points leader Jonathan Summerton.

There is now a four week break before the fifth round of the 2009 Firestone Indy Lights championship series at the Indianapolis 500 meeting on May 22.

Before then though Cunningham will be back behind the wheel of the #11 Luca Oils car at the official Indianapolis test on Tuesday May 5.

Source: www.nzracer.com