Morris Nuffield Nunn (27 September 1938 – 18 July 2018) was an English motor racing team owner and engineer.
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 2002 Indy Racing League season. The team was sponsored by WorldCom and Hollywood cigarettes and initially hired Tony Kanaan and Felipe Giaffone. Giaffone finished 3rd in the 2002 Indianapolis 500 and Kanaan was leading but crashed in the last laps. A third car driven by Jeff Simmons finished ninth.
In 2002, Nunn entered one car each in Champ Car and the rival Indy Racing League. The IRL entry for 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 a joint effort with Fernández Racing at the 2005 Indianapolis 500, Nunn closed the team in 2005 and retired.
Race results Complete CART FedEx Championship Series results
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap; results with * indicate most laps led) Year Chassis Engine Drivers No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 2000 DET MCH VAN SRF Reynard 2Ki Mercedes IC 108E Tony Kanaan55 10 16 18 16 8 10 DNS 24 16 13 8 14 22 13 10 8 1819th24 Bryan Herta 16 9 1826 2001 MTY LBH TEX NAZ MOT MIL DET POR CLE TOR MCH CHI MDO ROA VAN LAU ROC HOU LAG SRF FON Reynard 01i Honda HR-1 Tony Kanaan55 7 7 C 16 3 6 DNS 24 16 10 21 8 5 12 4 7 8 12 8 17 59th93 Alex Zanardi66 24 26 C 20 7 11 24 26 13 4 20 9 19 13 24 2023rd24 Casey Mears (R) 17 11 26 828th7 2002 MTY LBH MOT MIL LAG POR CHI TOR CLE VAN MDO ROA MTL DEN ROC MIA SFR FON MXC Reynard 02i Honda HR-2 Tony Kanaan10 16 20 15*12th99Lola B2/00 16 12 8 8 17 8 3 14 4 3 6 15 9 5 4 8*
The Firestone Firehawk 600 was canceled after qualifying due to excessive g-forces on the drivers.
IndyCar Series results (key) Year Chassis Engine Drivers No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 2002 INDY MCH G-Force GF05C Chevrolet Indy V8 Tony Kanaan17 2850th2 Felipe Giaffone21 7 19 6 2 3 5 4 3 4 7 3 1* 21 6 174th432 2003 INDY MCH G-Force GF09Dallara IR-03 Toyota Indy V8 Toranosuke Takagi121222853613187671814918710th317 Arie Luyendyk20DNQNC— Alex Barron6 2162151162015 Felipe Giaffone93333171362215161920th199 2004 INDY Dallara IR-04 Toyota Indy V8 Toranosuke Takagi1248101910192111202020191713141215th263 Jeff Simmons (R)211626
Toranosuke Takagi had a 23 points deduction at Texas Motor Speedway due to unacceptable driving.
References
Profile at Grandprix.com