Morris Nunn, a engineering guru who teamed with team owner Chip Ganassi to win four consecutive CART championships from 1996 to 1999, died on Wednesday. Nunn died after losing a battle with Parkinson's disease.
Nunn's racing career went well beyond Champ Car, however. His career in major racing started as a racer in Formula 3. Unable to find much success in the cockpit, Nunn turned to a career as a team owner, first in Formula 3 before founding the Ensign Racing Team in Formula 1 in 1973.
Ensign competed in 102 F1 races, according to ESPN, between 1973 and 1982, with a best finish of fourth place at the 1981 Brazilian Grand Prix with driver Marc Surer. Others from a long list of drivers who raced in F1 for Nunn during that decade included Nelson Piquet, Jackie Ickx, Derek Daly, Clay Regazzoni and Danny Ongais.
In America, Nunn took on the role of engineer and became one of the top engine gurus in major-league open-wheel racing, winning the 1989 Indy 500 and CART championship with team owner Pat Patrick, Patrick Racing and driver Emerson Fittipaldi.
Nunn, an Englishman, had even greater success when he aligned with Ganassi to form what proved to be an Indy-car dream team. With Nunn, Ganassi won four consecutive championships -- in 1996 with driver Jimmy Vasser, in 1997 and 1998 with Alex Zanardi and in 1999 with Juan Pablo Montoya.
Following his championship run with Ganassi, Nunn formed Mo Nunn Racing in 1999. The team fielded two cars in 2000 -- cars driven by Tony Kanaan and Bryan Herta -- in CART.
Nunn closed out his career in the Indy Racing League, and his team scored its lone victory in the IRL in 2002 with driver Felipe Giaffone. Giaffone finished fourth in the championship that season.
photo credit: © 2018 Autoweek
text credit: © 2018 Mike Pryson / Autoweek
