By: Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
Gaunt Brothers Racing which fields the No. 96 Toyota Camry in the NASCAR Cup Series with Daniel Suarez has announced the addition of Nick Ollila as its technical director.
Ollila will oversee the teams engineering department after three years as the technical director for Kelly Racing in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.
“Nick brings considerable insight into what we’re doing with our current inventory of racecars and what we’ll be doing with our NextGen car in 2022,” said Marty Gaunt, president and CEO, Gaunt Brothers Racing in a team press release.
“He has deep experience in all forms of motorsports, specifically in embracing technology and managing people. Nick also has a strong rapport with our partner Toyota, as many of the people he worked with when he was at Red Bull are the same people there today. He’ll be able to hit the ground running, which is good, because with two to three races a week, we’re all going to be running.”
The signing of Ollila to the Gaunt Brothers organization does not mark it as a new relationship between Ollila and Gaunt. Gaunt first worked with him in 1997 when the two were both at Kranefuss-Racing. At the time, Gaunt served as the general manager of the NASCAR Cup Series team and Ollila was the chief engineer. Ten years later, they both ended up working together at Red Bull Racing as well.
“It’s the people who make the cars go, and Nick has been making cars go since the early ‘70s,” Gaunt said. “We’re lucky to have a lot of long-term employees who have been with us for 10 years but scaling up from running a part-time schedule to a full schedule meant bringing in more people. Coming up with the recipe of having all the right people in all the right places isn’t easy, but Nick is a good chef.”
NASCAR continues to be where Ollila has spent most of his career. Back in 1980 he was the drive-train specialist at Rod Osterlund Racing when Dale Earnhardt won the first of his seven NASCAR Cup Series championships.
Ollila’s career began at Team Penske back in 1972 as a mechanic where he helped prepare cars for each series the organization was competing in. The series included NASCAR, INDYCAR, Can-Am, Formula 5000, sports cars and Formula One.
When late 1976 rolled around he joined DiGard Racing as the teams drivetrain specialist where he worked with NASCAR Hall of Famer, Darrell Waltrip until the 1978 season when he went to work for Rod Osterland Racing.
He returned to INDYCAR and Team Penske in 1982 as the teams engine builder and saw a multitude of success where he enjoyed four championships (1982, 1983, 1985 and 1988) and four Indianapolis 500 victories (1984, 1985, 1987 and 1988).
1990 led Ollila back to NASCAR where he served as the lead engineer for Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace.
From 1995-1997 he worked for Kranefuss-Haas Racing where he established and led the engineering and aerodynamics department. That was followed up with an eight-year stint with Roush Fenway Racing as its chief engineer and director of aerodynamics.
In 2005, Ollila spent time with Richard Childress Racing as its director of aerodynamics.
Ollila then went on to join Red Bull Racing in September of 2007 as its chief aerodynamicist. His efforts at Red Bull were successful as the team saw its first win in the NASCAR Cup Series with Brian Vickers behind the wheel in August of 2009 at Michigan International Speedway.
Previously, Ollila served as a consultant specializing in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and computer-aided design (CAD) from 2010-2016 before making the move overseas to Australia. He went on to join Arise Racing where he was the operations manager and technical director.
“Motorsports is my passion, and I’m proud to have turned it into a career,” Ollila said. “I’ve spent time in a variety of racing series, but NASCAR is the one that intrigues me the most. The level of competition is unmatched, so success is very satisfying. I’ve known and worked with Marty Gaunt and many of the people at Gaunt Brothers Racing for years. They’ve got a great foundation and they’re building for the future, and I’m very happy to be a part of shaping that future.”
The NASCAR Cup Series returns to on track competition on Sunday May 17 from Darlington Raceway at 3:30 PM ET live on Fox.