CART: Potter Joins Mo Nunn Racing To Complete Reorganization
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
April 3, 2001
Team-Owner Nunn To Relocate to Indy
INDIANAPOLIS – Longtime automotive and sports marketing industry executive Steve Potter has joined Mo Nunn Racing as Managing Director, Commerce. In his new position Potter will manage the activities of the Indianapolis-based team’s marketing, communications and other commercial staff.
The announcement was made by team principal Morris Nunn, who noted the importance of Potter’s new role in an organization that has doubled in size with the addition this season of two-time CART champion Alex Zanardi in the #66 Pioneer/WorldCom Honda-Reynard as teammate to Tony Kanaan in the #55 Hollywood Honda-Reynard. Potter’s appointment culminates the reorganization and relocation of several operational functions and responsibilities.
“Last year when we launched the team, it made good sense for the team to focus totally on the technical side of the equation,” said Nunn, who is the most successful engineer in CART over the past two decades. “Having my partner, Rod Campbell, handle the commercial side from California was the correct way to proceed. But in our second year we’ve gone from being a small team to being a pretty big one. The team’s on-track success is as much dependent on the organizational and commercial factors as it is on the technical element, and we need to have both in-house.”
Potter comes to the team from Mercedes-Benz USA, where he oversaw the German car company’s U.S. sports marketing program, including its engagements in golf, tennis and motorsports. Before joining Mercedes-Benz, he managed Mazda’s East Coast public relations office for six years, and during that time oversaw the company’s U.S. motorsports publicity program.
Potter is a graduate of Harvard University, where his career as a motorsports journalist began as a part-time contributor to Chris Economaki’s National Speed Sport News. While pursuing a doctorate in clinical psychology at Rutgers University, Potter was appointed Motorsports Correspondent to The New York Times. His weekly column appeared there for nine years.
An enthusiastic amateur racer for 15 years, Potter competed in cars ranging from TQ Midgets and small formula cars to IMSA GT and Street Stock machines. His on-track career included several years of ice racing and Pro Rally competition, a year driving a NASCAR-type modified stock car at New Jersey’s Wall Stadium in the mid-1980s and two SCCA club racing championships before hanging up his helmet in 1994. Potter and his family are relocating from New Jersey to Indianapolis.
“I’m very pleased to have Steve on board,” Nunn continued. “The combination of experience in the worlds of sports, industry and journalism and three decades of professional involvement in motorsports that Steve brings to this position represents a unique resource for our team. He has an important role to play in the future growth of Mo Nunn Racing.”
With the team’s growth and relocation to a new 26,000-square-foot facility near the Indianapolis Airport, Nunn is increasing his on-site involvement and plans to move with his wife, Kathryn, from their current home in Florida to the Indianapolis area.
“Last year the team was small enough that I could rely on an on-site general manager, and oversee everything from Florida,” he said. “The team is past that stage now. This year our goal is to have both Tony and Alex win races and to contend for the FedEx championship. I’m always thinking about the team anyway; I ought to be there full-time.”
Brad Filbey is the Mo Nunn Racing Technical Director and Team Manager. Cathy Beadle is Director of Finance and Administration and is the Chief Financial Officer.
Also joining the team, and reporting to Potter, is John Rodeman, who comes to Mo Nunn Racing from Motorola to assume the position of Senior Manager of Client Services. As such, Rodeman, who was Corporate Sports Marketing Manager during a seven-year stint at Motorola, will oversee the team’s sponsor relations program, including its on-site hospitality and business unit operations on race weekends. Rodeman is a graduate of Purdue University.
Laz Denes continues in his role as Communications Manager for the second year, responsible for media relations, driver appearances, team web site administration, and assists in various marketing communications projects.
Text provided by Laz Denes
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