| [ News Index ][ SpeedCenter Homepage ][ Copyright Info ][ SpeedCenter Galleries ] |
©2000 SpeedCenter Publishing What might be one of the worst-kept secrets of the silly season was made official today with the announcement by newly formed Mo Nunn Racing that young Brazilian star Tony Kanaan will be its driver beginning with the 2000 CART FedEx Championship Series campaign. "We start testing this weekend at Sebring and will continue next week at Spring Training next week," said Nunn, chief technical director for five CART champions, including the last four, adding that the team's primary sponsorship announcement is still pending. "With that, we wanted to confirm that Tony is our driver. We were very fortunate to obtain a driver with his talent at such a late date. I'm sure Tony will fit into our program perfectly." The 25-year-old Kanaan, who scored his first victory at last year's U.S. 500, will begin his third CART season behind the wheel of the #55 Nunn Racing Mercedes-Benz Reynard. He concluded a two-year run last season with Forsythe Championship Racing, where he started his Champ Car career and earned series Rookie of the Year honors in 1998. He won the Dayton Indy Lights championship the previous year, and was runner-up to then-teammate and current CART competitor Helio Castro-Neves in 1996. "I'm extremely excited about the opportunity to work with Mo Nunn, and I've been a Mercedes-Benz enthusiast practically my whole life, so this has the makings for a very special program," Kanaan said. "Mo's track record speaks for itself and Mercedes has been winning races for over 100 years. I can't wait to start the season." Nunn started his new racing operation in partnership with Bruce R. McCaw, president of PacWest Racing Group L.L.C., and Rod Campbell, longtime Detroit-based automotive marketing executive. Steve Newey, formerly with Patrick Racing, has come on board as general manager and Brad Filbey, formerly with Team Gordon, is team manager.
|
|
|||
|
|
|||