Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Kudrave and his father would annually journey to the now defunct Ontario Motor Speedway where they would watch racing legends like Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, and others compete. He has described this experience by saying "Those drivers were thrill-seekers and I knew then that I wanted to get into it." This led Kudrave to begin racing at just twelve years old. He attended the Jim Russell British School of Motor Racing at fifteen years old, lying about his age in order to be eligible for the program, but still beating the older attendees in most of the races that he participated in. He began competing in a racing series sponsored by Russell after finishing the program and then moved up to the Formula Ford Circuit, a class generally regarded as the most competitive amateur open-wheel class in the nation. Kudrave also attended the University of Southern California, majoring in Economics.
In 1985, Kudrave officially became a professional open-wheel race car driver by moving up to the Super Vee Series, which features cars with 200 horsepower engines. Just one year after he entered the series, he finished the season in sixth place. In 1987, he won three races, one pole position, and led for more laps and miles than any other competitor. He finished the series in second, just twenty points behind series champion Scott Atchinson. His worst race finish that year was fourth place, and he was voted the series "Most Improved Driver". That year Kudrave was publicly praised by former Formula One driver Dan Gurney, who said “He's talented, no doubt about it.”
Kudrave made his CART debut in 1993, racing for the Euromotorsport team. He started seven races, with his best finish in eighth place, and finished the season with six points. Following a season where he did not start any races in 1994, Kudrave would return to racing in the newly-formed Indy Racing League.
Kudrave's return to racing with Tempero-Giuffre Racing started in the Indy 200 at the Walt Disney World Speedway, where he finished in twentieth. This was then followed by a tenth-place finish in Phoenix. In the third round of the season, he was set to race in the Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, before a complication within his team prevented him from being able to participate in the race. He finished the 1996 season with eighty points, ranked nineteenth overall.
In the 1996-1997 season, Kudrave participated in just one race, the Indy 225 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, finishing seventeenth. The 1996-1997 Indy Racing League Season would be his final season of his racing career. Currently, Kudrave is in the real estate brokerage business in Southern California.
The source for this article is a single Wikipedia article on David Kudrave. Primary archives, autobiographies, period programmes, and specialist publications were not consulted.