|
Johnny is a native of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was in this southwestern hotbed of auto racing that his father, an auto mechanic, joined Al Unser to race Sprint Cars. This successful partnership continued into Indy Car racing. Johnny joined his father on the race car circuit during school vacations from the University of New Mexico, where he studied business.
His resume is a series of working relationships with some of auto racing’s most prominent team owners, drivers, and sponsors, including Penske, Cotter, Bernstein, Newman-Hass, Walker, Andretti, Unser, Pennzoil, K-Mart, Texaco, and True-Value.
What captivated the young Capels most about auto racing was the sponsor promotions. It was a unique venue to promote brand names that were entertaining, multimedia, state of the art, reinforced consumer awareness vehicles. He learned first hand the requirements necessary to produce these extraordinary programs. In 1991, he left racing to work for a parallel production group, which exposed him to the technical and mechanical demands of over the road promotions.
National Tour Inc. was founded by Johnny Capels in October 1996. That following January the first joint sponsor/auto racing tour was on the road. The formula was simple; customer service and hard work result in growth. That same year, five additional companies trusted their promotions to his expertise. Today, the event marketing operations of as many as 40 corporate programs are under the direction of Johnny Capels and National Tour Inc team.
After meeting Johnny Capels in 1996, Dan had a front row seat to witness the explosive growth of NTI. Growing from a leased cubical in an office building in Santa Ana, California to a state of the art building in Rancho Santa Margarita, California with multiple out of state satellite offices. Dan actually used to taxi Johnny to various locations using Johnny’s personal vehicle…it wasn’t very luxurious but that old Toyota truck did its job. My, what humble beginnings!!
Born and raised in Southern California and married on June 4th 1994 Dan received the greatest anniversary gift of all in 1996…the birth of his son Brandon.
Dan is very active in church and enjoys helping out with local out reaches and functions. Other hobbies include jet skiing and dirt bike riding with his family.
After moving to the “hot rod hot bed” of California in 1967, Brit “built” his way to the top of the Indy Car / F1 vehicle scene. Teaming up with Dan Gurney and then Parnelli Jones in the 70’s, Brit can actually make the claim that 28 of the 33 participating cars in the 1973/74 Indy 500 was “wearing” several of his parts that he hand built. Brit also contributed his fabrication expertise to Mario Andretti by building one of only two American made F1 cars. Why stop at the open wheel market?? In 1987 Brit helped to construct one of the most famous GTP cars ever to run the circuit…the 1987 Nissan GTP driven by many famous drivers including Hans Stuck, Arie Luyendyk and Derek Daly. Just before joining National Tour Inc, Brit was the fabrication supervisor for one of the leading chassis builders for open wheel cars…Swift Engineering headquartered in San Clemente, CA. When Brit is not turning wrenches he likes to relax and…turn wrenches. Brit is in the middle of restoring his vintage Formula Ford at his San Juan Capistrano, CA home.
Born and raised in Southern California, Brad brings 5 years of sales and marketing experience to National Tour Inc. He has worked with several different types of clients in the past including Intel, Gateway, Stanley, Iomega and Sony Electronics. Brad and his wife Kendra are the proud parents of their first child, Shelby, who was born on January 21, 2002. Being a self-proclaimed “gear head,” Brad loves to be around the NHRA scene in Pomona or the CART action in Long Beach!
Denise brings over 15 years of HR experience to National Tour Inc. Denise is in charge of all HR functions for both NTI’s internal team as well as our promotional specialists in the field. When Denise is not in the middle of OSHA updates or processing W4’s she can be found on the beaches of Barbados or high atop the Swiss Alps…not too bad for a farm girl form Iowa!!!
Once contracts are signed and equipment is built, both client and internal staff members turn to Amber to tie everything together into a “neat” little tour schedule…whether it is arranging for a truck to show up at a local retail outlet or booking a spot at the Super Bowl, Amber runs the show. In her spare time, Amber likes to relax by planning her wedding! April ’03 is the big date for Amber and her fiancé Chris who will tie the not closer to Amber’s hometown of San Diego, CA.
Any and all vehicles that NTI plans to put on the road needs to meet Mark’s strict scrutiny before it can wear the National Tour Inc badge. Keeping the vehicles in spec and the drivers up to date on the latest rules and regulations of the road are just some of the tremendous responsibilities Mark is in charge of. Duties like this are second nature to Mark who applies the discipline he developed in the US Navy sailing on the USS Josespes Daniels and USS San Bernardino.
Shawn can easily be described as “the guy who is always on the phone!” Shawn is always in constant communication with our suppliers to make sure our vehicles are built using the best materials provided by the most reliable vendors. Shawn’s ultimate responsibility is keeping the quality of the National Tour Inc vehicles at the highest possible levels at all times.
|
