Michael Cannon
Born: July 13, 1962
Hometown: Montreal, Quebec
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 160 lbs.
Residence: Avon, Indianapolis
Wife: Jill
Children: Cooper (11), Colin (9)
With a famous father who was both a fighter pilot and an open-wheel racer, Michael Cannon was destined for a career centered on speed. The Lead Engineer for the No. 13 PDVSA HVM Racing Honda Dallara, Cannon has been around racing his entire life.
Michael Cannon is the son of Canadian Motorsports Hall of Famer John Cannon, who won the Formula 5000 championship in 1970 and also raced in the United States Road Racing Championship and the Can-Am Series. After looking into a career in aviation – his father’s flying experience piqued his interest – Cannon started his career in motorsports with a summer job working for a race team. That summer, he made enough contacts in the industry to secure a full-time job as a mechanic with an importership.
By the mid-80s, he wanted to do more than fix cars – he wanted to get into the science of how they performed. In 1986, he started dabbling in engineering when he took a data acquisition systems job with Stocker Racing, which competed in various open-wheel series and claimed an SCCA Pro Sports 2000 championship.
In 1989, Can-Am competitor Genoa Racing recruited Cannon to start up U.S. operations for the team based in San Francisco. After a season of Champ Car competition in 1990 with driver Tommy Byrne, Genoa entered Atlantic for the first time in 1991 with future star Jimmy Vasser as the lead driver.
It was during his tenure with Genoa that Cannon got his first taste of IndyCar racing. Shortly after, Genoa began entering Indy Lights and IndyCar competitions in the mid-90s, Cannon decided to move to Indianapolis to work for long-time American open-wheel competitor Forsythe Racing. He started on driver Lee Benthem’s Indy Lights machine, and the following year moved to Forsythe’s IRL team as assistant engineer for Patrick Carpentier. Two seasons later, Cannon was promoted to Lead Engineer for the team. He has led the Engineering efforts of winning teams ever since.
Cannon won his first championship with Forsythe in 2003 with Paul Tracy in the CART series. The following year, he took his winning ways to Herdez Competition (today HVM Racing) as lead engineer for Mario Dominguez, who finished fifth in the Champ Car standings. Dominguez left Herdez for Forsythe in 2005, and a year later, Cannon followed the driver. During that 2006 season, Cannon led Dominguez and A.J. Allmendinger to five wins.
By 2007, Herdez Competition had a new investor in Paul Stoddart and a new name – Minardi Team USA. The team also had a new driver in Robert Doornbos, and enticed Cannon to rejoin the organization as the car’s lead engineer. The combination of Cannon’s knowledge and Doornbos’ driving skills was a successful match. The 2007 season saw two wins and six podiums. Doornbos went on to finish third in the Champ Car standings and earn Rookie of the Year honors.
Cannon celebrated his 25th anniversary in racing during the 2008 season, when the team was renamed HVM Racing as it moved into the unified IndyCar Series. With IRL newcomer E.J. Viso behind the wheel, HVM’s No. 33 PDVSA Honda Dallara fast proved to be a competitive force on the track. The team finished the season with seven top-10 finishes and a best of fourth with Cannon calling the race strategy.
Cannon looks forward to building on the team’s 2008 performance to be even more competitive in 2009. With Viso’s rookie season under his belt and valuable experience gained by both driver and team, the No. 13 PDVSA HVM Racing Honda Dallara will be on the track looking for checkers.