Team NASAMAX
Team Profiles - Who’s Who In Team NASAMAX At Le Mans? 09.06.03

Karl Griffith - #1 Mechanic

Originally from New Zealand, Karl arrived in the UK 11 years ago to pursue a career in motorsport.

“There isn’t really much of a motor racing scene in New Zealand, so I had to try further afield. I could have gone to Australia and worked on tin tops, but I don’t fancy anything with a roof!”

Thus, prior to joining Team NASAMAX early this year, Karl worked on British F3, Formula Renault and Formula Ford. Marriage and children helped to prolong his stay.

This is his first sportscar project.

Gavin Milne - Data Engineer

Gavin’s involvement with John McNeil precedes his graduation from Loughborough University with a Masters degree. “John helped me with my thesis, which involved wind tunnel testing, and we’ve stayed in touch since then. Just after I graduated in 2001, John offered me the chance to help out with the Ascari at Le Mans.” Gavin’s main role in the team is to extract the meaningful data from the telemetry screens.

He would like to go on record as denying that there is any such thing as “to be Gavined” (meaning a sudden and unexplained loss of data), as alleged at the test day weekend. However, rumours that the tent collapse at Sebring was owing to his big legs and not the huge storm have yet to be disproved.

Vince Moutrille - Crew Chief

The Frenchman with the Foreign Legion haircut comes to Team NASAMAX with a wealth of motorsport experience. Involved professionally since 1996, his first visit to Le Mans was with the McLaren F1 of BBA Competition. He was with them for three years before spending 1999 in the UK with AM Racing’s long-tail McLaren F1 in the Privilege Insurance British GT Championship. In 2000 he joined the DAMS Cadillac project and transferred to the factory team in 2001, staying through Le Mans 2002. He came to Team NASAMAX a month before the test weekend. His best memory of Le Mans? “2000 - we were fourth until 1.30pm on the Sunday. That was great!” His worst? “1998 - Giovanni Lavaggi crashed the Kremer K8 in the last session of qualifying and we didn’t take the start!”

Vince’s role is liaising between the team’s engineering management and the crew. He also sorts out the work programme.

Dave Lee - Bodywork Fabricator

Also acting as the #2 mechanic during the race, Dave has been with the project from the start in December 2002.

No stranger to hard work, Dave’s previous experience includes Ascari and F1 with BAR. In fact, Dave had to try and put back together what was left of Jacques Villeneuve’s and Ricardo Zonta’s cars after they both stuffed them spectacularly at Eau Rouge during qualifying for the 1999 Belgian Grand Prix.

As can be seen from the photograph, Dave can turn his hand to anything - here he’s preparing Werner Lupberger’s seat.

Nigel Tee - Mechanic / Gearbox Technician

This will be Nigel’s fourth Le Mans, his previous three being with Nissan Motorsport in 1989, Dick Barbour in 2001 and Bentley in 2002. It will also be the first time he has been responsible for the gearboxes.

Nigel’s first task of the week is to prepare a spare rear-end, should it be required in the race. Unfortunately, owing to the CART-derived rear end of the Reynard, an Audi-style three minute change is well out of range. However, by making these preparations now, valuable time will be saved should the situation arise.

Interestingly, the water-like liquid he is using to clean down the gearbox components is actually the car’s fuel, bio-ethanol. In addition to being a wholly renewable fuel, it also is a very effective solvent.

Chris Thompson - Team Logistics

Chris is one of those very important support staff that every team should have. He has travelled far and wide in motorsport with John McNeil, having been employed by McNeil Engineering for 15 years.

At this year’s race, Chris’s main tasks will involve the transport of equipment, the handling of wheels and tyres and overseeing the driver changes.

One of the best moments in his early career was his involvement in the Spice that finished second in the WSPC in 1989. Had they had their regular drivers in the car in the final race in Mexico, the team would have won the championship. As it was, the car had two paying Mexican drivers, and it became the unofficial Mexican national car for the event.

Chris is fully enthused by the bio-ethanol project. Hopefully the 2003 Le Mans will be a new high in his motorsport life to date.

Brian Richardson - Team ‘Sparks’

Brian is responsible for the Reynard’s wiring. He has been in motorsport professionally since 1985, working on many diverse projects. Twelve years of his time was spent working with Chris Hodge’s Truck Racing Developments in the FIA Truck Racing Cup. He has also worked on all of Cor Euser’s cars since 1994, which has obviously kept him very busy.

The race week preparations are also keeping Brian busy. The construction of the extra rear end means he has had to double up all his wiring looms. He has also had to change all the connectors on the Champcar derived construction, from Lemo to his preferred Deutsche AS.

Brian’s natural cheeriness has come in useful recently during the Junior Doctor style 30 hour shifts the team have been experiencing recently.

Keith Connolly - Refueller

Keith is another who has a long connection with the team, having worked with Brian Ireland on the Tiga WSPC team in the late ‘80s, in competition with John McNeil. He started with Tiga in the stores department in 1982, before progressing to mechanic by the end of the decade. He then spent time in F3 and F3000 with March Engineering, before working alongside Brian once more in the Mexican F2 Championship. Since the early ‘90s, Keith has made his living in the spares business (having his own company) and was brought onto the NASAMAX project as a parts and spares buyer.

Keith isn’t entirely sure how and when he made the transition from buyer to refueller. He will be on duty for the full 24 hours, and is unlikely to get much rest. As with everybody else in this team, he is looking forward to the challenge.

Richard Ellice - Truckie / Vent Man

Richard was first involved in motorsport in the late sixties, but had a long break from the sport when he got married. He returned to Le Mans in 1995 as vent man for the Japanese-entered Honda NSX. That same year he started working with John McNeil in EuroBoss and Interserie.

This year he should be a busy man (the Reynard likely to need refuelling every nine laps) working opposite Keith.

Jim Crouch - Enthusiast / Tyre Man

Jim’s history with John McNeil goes back to the mid-eighties, when he did six Le Mans as a member of John’s team. Back then, the team often numbered in single digits and so everybody had multiple roles. A Le Mans absentee since 1990, this is Jim’s first time in the new pits and is delighted that he no longer has to manually lug every tyre up and down the hill, as in olden days. A piano-tuner by profession (he tunes John’s piano twice a year), Jim will be helping out where needed.

John ‘Nippy’ Norman - Enthusiast / Pitboard

John is another who helped John McNeil at Le Mans back in the eighties. A market research professional by trade, John is used to working with figures and has an affinity with timing, often becoming the unofficial timer at Interserie races due to his ability to time every car with just one stopwatch. He will be found on the pitwall during qualifying and the race.

Tony Pattison - Truckie / Tyre Change / Jack

While this is technically Tony’s first Vingt Quatre Heures Du Mans, he does actually have experience of a 24 hour enduro at the circuit - in 1997 he was part of a team taking part in a 24 hour race on the karting circuit. He has actually been to the circuit several times for races on the Bugatti circuit, with McNeil Engineering’s Indycar. He joined the team in 2002 and stayed on for the NASAMAX project.

Tony is a mechanic by trade, having his own mobile business in Norfolk. He also looks after a historic Jaguar for a client. He has long been involved in motorsport and in the late 80s helped to run a Volvo in the Wilhire 24 Hours at Snetterton.

While at Le Mans this year, Tony will be getting involved wherever needed. Not only will he be on tyre change and airjack / earth duty for the race, he has also had to fix the plumbing on the shower in the team trailer.

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