Mo Nunn
| Mo Nunn | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Morris Nunn September 27, 1938 |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Motor racing, engineer and team owner |
| Years active | ?–2005 |
| Known for |
Formula One, team owner (Ensign) Champ Car and Indy Racing League, team owner (Mo Nunn Racing) |
Morris "Mo" Nunn (born 27 September 1938)[1] is a motor racing team owner and engineer from England. He founded and ran the Ensign Formula One team in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and later worked for Chip Ganassi's highly successful Champ Car team, before founding Mo Nunn Racing for the 2000 season. At the urging of Mercedes Benz Nunn again started a team for the 2000 season. The team was sponsored by WorldCom and Hollywood (tobacco) and initially hired Tony Kanaan and Felipe Giaffone. Giaffone finished 2nd in the 2003 Indianapolis 500 and Kanaan was leading but got caught in a crash in the last laps. A third car driven by Jeff Simmons finished 9th. In 2002 Nunn entered one car each in Champ Car and the rival Indy Racing League. The IRL entry for Felipe Giaffone proved more competitive than Kanaan's Champ Car entry, 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 2003, while Giaffone missed races because of injuries. He was replaced by Alex Barron, who won the Michigan race. 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 Indianapolis 500, Nunn closed the team after the 2005 Indianapolis 500 and retired.