Mo Nunn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Morris 'Mo' Nunn is a motor racing team owner and engineer from England. He ran the Ensign Formula One team in the late 1970s and early 80s, and later worked for Chip Ganassi's highly successful ChampCar team, before striking out on his own again to found Mo Nunn Racing. The relative lack of success Ganassi have had since his departure is a testament to the contribution Morris' know-how made to the team.

Running his own team did not prove so successful. Like Ensign, the team was often relatively under-funded. Tony Kanaan was their sole driver in their debut 2000 season, never managing a top-5 finish. A second car was added for Alex Zanardi in 2001, but he was uncompetitive before the horrific Lausitzring crash in which he lost his legs. Kanaan finished in the championship top 10.

In 2002 Mo entered one car in each of ChampCar and the rival Indy Racing League championship, and the IRL entry for Felipe Giaffone was more competitive than the ChampCar entry for Kanaan, encouraging the team to concentrate purely on IRL a year later. With Toyota and Pioneer backing the former F1 driver Tora Takagi joined the team. He finished 10th in the 2003 standings, while Giaffone missed races through injury. His replacement Alex Barron was a race winner however. For 2004 only one car was entered, for Takagi, whose performance was not impressive after a heavy crash at Twin Ring Motegi. Other than the 2005 Indy 500, Mo has not been involved in racing since.