Kanaan Believes His Racing Team’s Second to None

The way Tony Kanaan sees it, based on last year’s results, Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is set up just right for the newly formed Mo Nunn Racing team.

Kanaan, the driver, qualified on the pole for last year’s race, driving a Reynard-Honda for Gerry Forsythe’s team. He led 44 laps before running into a tire wall coming out of the loop around the Aquarium.

Nunn, the new team’s owner and engineer, masterminded last year’s win by Juan Montoya in one of Chip Ganassi’s Reynard-Hondas. Nunn was also the engineer behind the two-year domination of Long Beach by Alex Zanardi in 1997 and 1998.

“That gives us pretty good credentials, doesn’t it?” said the enthusiastic Kanaan, one of nine Brazilians--most live in the Miami area--in the CART FedEx series.

Kanaan, who took the lead from Bryan Herta on the second lap last year, appeared ready for a near wire-to-wire run at Long Beach before he ran a bit wide entering Turn 6.

“Before I knew it, I was up in the marbles and into the tire wall,” he said. “It was all my fault. I felt bad enough about it, but I was barely back in the garage when my mother was on the phone from Sao Paulo. She really chews me out when I do something wrong. Sometimes, after a race, I won’t answer the phone because I know it’s her. She is my biggest critic.

“Even now, nearly a year later, she likes to tell me that if I hadn’t goofed at Long Beach, I would have two CART wins, instead of just one.”

Kanaan, 25, won his first race, the U.S. 500 at Michigan, rather unexpectedly last year. Max Papis was on his way to an easy win when he ran out of fuel two turns from the finish, allowing Kanaan to sweep by for the checkered flag, inches ahead of Montoya.

Then the excitable Brazilian beat his mother to the punch. When a TV reporter thrust a microphone in his face, Kanaan shouted, “Mom, I did it! I didn’t crash this time.”

Kanaan was not the team’s first choice this year, but as it turned out, Nunn says, “We were very fortunate to come away with a driver of his caliber.”

Nunn’s first choice was Zanardi, the little Italian he had helped to two CART FedEx championships while with Ganassi.

“I spoke with Alex but his mind was not clear from his Formula One deal. At that time, he had not come to a settlement [with F1 team owner Frank Williams]. We couldn’t hang on any longer. But down the road, maybe toward the end of the season or in 2001, we may have Alex in a second car.”

Zanardi, after winning two consecutive CART championships, went back to Formula One last year with a two-year contract with Williams. When he failed to score a point all season, Williams dropped him for British rookie Jenson Button.

When Nunn made his deal with Mercedes, Helio Castro-Neves, another Brazilian, was to be the driver. But then Greg Moore was killed in an accident at California Speedway in the final race of 1999 and Castro-Neves was tabbed by Roger Penske to replace Moore, leaving a seat open in Nunn’s car.

“Now we were stuck,” Nunn said. “Because the first half of the year, except Long Beach, was all ovals, we needed someone with oval track experience. At the time, the most accomplished driver available was Bryan Herta. We were about 90% ready to sign him when we got a call from Kanaan.

“Tony was not happy that Forsythe was going to switch from a Reynard to Swift chassis and he said he thought we could buy out his contract. We talked with Forsythe and that’s what we did.

“Everywhere we’ve run, testing at Sebring and racing at Homestead, we have found him to be very accomplished, perhaps a little underrated. It takes two or three test sessions, and a couple of races, to learn what a driver can do. So far, Tony has shown he can take the pressure, react to pit stops, race smart on the track. He’s as good as anybody I’ve had. I see no weak spots.”

In CART’s only race this year, at Homestead, Fla., Kanaan was running well before an unfortunate circumstance in the pits cost him track position.

“We had a top-three car, for sure,” Kanaan said. “It was unfortunate that a yellow flag came out just as we were preparing to pit for fuel. A car stopped on the track and we were already committed. I was forced to drive through the pits without stopping.

“Then, I had to stop the next time around even though the pits were closed because I was out of fuel. That was bad enough but then I was penalized for leaving the pits at 51 mph, one mile over the pit speed limit. That put me a lap down.”

He finished 10th.

Kanaan, who came to the U.S. in 1996 to drive an Indy Lights car after years of winning Brazilian karting championships, credits Nunn for giving him a more workable environment.

“I am excitable,” he said in an understatement. “He is teaching me to be more calm. Mo has two things that make him outstanding. First is his experience, his knowledge of racing and race cars. Secondly, it’s his calmness. He never gets upset. He is very consistent all the time. That has been a big key to my learning.”

The new team still uses Reynard chassis, but the power comes from a turbocharged Mercedes-Benz V-8.

It was the Mercedes racing folks who talked Nunn into coming back with his own team after three championship seasons with Ganassi. Nunn had planned to retire and work on his golf game.

“I told Chip last year at Mid-Ohio [Aug. 15] that it was my last season,” Nunn said. “He had talked me out of retiring the year before, but this time I convinced him that I was serious. I meant it.”

He began changing his mind when CART went to Chicago the following week to debut Ganassi’s new track.

“Some Mercedes guys were there and they wanted me to start an Indy car team with AMG [a corporate associate of Mercedes],” said Nunn, a former Formula One owner-engineer from England. “After a couple of weeks thinking about it, I called them back and said I had promised my wife to call it a day.

“I wanted to take the challenge of golf, a more difficult game than motor racing.

“Then my wife made a suggestion. She said why not do it, if I could do it for myself, and not be working for someone else. I called Mercedes back, and they put together a deal with Bruce McCaw and Rod Campbell. So here we are.”

McCaw, owner of the PacWest team, is a 25% owner. PacWest, with Mauricio Gugelmin and Mark Blundell as drivers, shares technological information with Nunn and the teams work together at races.

Nunn, although not superstitious, says he had a harbinger of good news last week.

“I got my first hole in one, on a 138-yard hole, at Hammock Dunes, near where we live [Palm Coast, Fla.],” he said.

“Maybe that means good luck is running my way.”

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The Facts

FRIDAY

* Practice and qualifying, 8 a.m.

SATURDAY

* Practice and qualifying, 8 a.m.

SUNDAY

* Long Beach Grand Prix, 1 p.m.

INFORMATION--Telephone:

(562) 981-2600; Online:

www.longbeachgp.com