Obituary: Mo Nunn
OBITUARY
The boss of the underdog Ensign Formula 1 team of the 1970s and ’80s and a hugely successful Indycar engineer, Mo Nunn died last week. He was 79.
Nunn ran some of the greatest drivers of the past 40 years, including Chris Amon, Jacky Ickx, Clay Regazzoni, Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya. Quietly spoken and noted for his down-to-earth approach, he was admired and respected by all who worked with him.
Born in Walsall in 1938, as a racer Nunn rose to the works Lotus Formula 3 team in ’69. A brief foray with an F5000 Lola in early ’70 ended in a split with the team. With no drive and no backing available, he accepted that he had a limited future as a driver. At the age of 31 he decided instead to be a constructor.
He knew F3 well so decided to start there, using his savings to buy the materials to build his first car in his garage, christening it the Ensign. In the hands of Bev Bond it achieved some success in 1971, and Nunn soon found customers. A conversation with one of them, the wealthy Rikky von Opel, led to the momentous decision to build an F1 car for ’73. It didn’t achieve very much, but Nunn was on his way as an F1 entrant and constructor. With Teddy Yip’s Theodore backing he ran Vern Schuppan in ’74, while Dutch sponsorship put Gijs van Lennep in the car in ’75.
Money was always short, but Nunn showed he had ambition by hiring Amon for a couple of races in 1975. That relationship extended into ’76, and the Kiwi put in some sterling performances – qualifying third at Anderstorp and sixth at Brands Hatch – before hanging up his helmet. Amon was replaced by Ickx and then, in ’77, by Regazzoni. The Swiss (below) made the top six several times that year, as did newcomer Patrick
Tambay in a sister Theodore-backed car.
Nunn gave chances to youngsters
Derek Daly and Nelson Piquet in 1978, the Irishman then struggling through ’79 with an uncompetitive ground-effect car.
For 1980 Nunn attracted major backing from Unipart, and reuniting with Regazzoni it appeared that Ensign’s fortunes had turned. But the veteran’s huge accident at Long Beach was a major blow, and Unipart left at the end of the year.
The team was running on a shoestring once more, but Marc Surer scored what would be Ensign’s best result with fourth and fastest lap in a wet Brazilian GP in ’81. After one more year under the Ensign name in 1982 with Roberto Guerrero, Nunn sold his assets to long-time friend and backer Yip.
Seeing no future in F1, he headed to the US, initially working with Guerrero and the Bignotti-cotter team. Without the pressure to find funds or build cars, and focusing solely on engineering, Nunn would finally find the sort of success that eluded him in Europe. After a spell with Newman-haas and Andretti he joined Patrick Racing, helping Fittipaldi to an Indy 500 victory and the CART title in 1989. He then joined Chip Ganassi Racing as technical director, winning the ’96 crown with Jimmy Vasser before enjoying two title-winning seasons with Zanardi, with whom he had a special bond.
When the Italian left to join Williams, Nunn persuaded Ganassi to take Montoya for 1999, and the team won a fourth straight crown with the Colombian (pictured with Nunn, above left).
For the 2000 season, and with the backing of Mercedes, Nunn set up his own CART team. Initially he ran one car for Tony Kanaan before he was reunited with Zanardi the following year, only for the Italian to be gravely injured at Lausitzring.
Mo Nunn Racing won two races in the IRL with Felipe Giaffone and Alex Barron. Following a final full season with former Tyrrell F1 driver Tora Takagi in 2004, and a joint venture with Adrian Fernandez at Indy in ’05, he called it a day. In September that year he auctioned off the team’s entire inventory, but remained in touch with the sport as technical advisor to Ganassi.