THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 24, 1995 TAG: 9509240164
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE, VA. LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
He is the only car owner in the Winston Cup garage to know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of American bombs.
He could have been a dry-cleaning magnate, but he was so uninterested, his own family kicked him out in less than a year.
His passion was automobiles, and it led him, eventually, to one of the most powerful positions in motorsports. For 15 years, he directed Ford Motor Co.'s worldwide racing programs.
But when Michael Kranefuss decided to retire last year and form his own race team, he did not return to Germany.
He did not go to Formula One, or even the Indy-car series. He moved to North Carolina and went stock-car racing. He formed his own team with Indy-car owner Carl Haas and hired veteran crew chief Tim Brewer and driver John Andretti.
But if you'd asked him earlier this summer how things were going, he might have told you it was time to rethink dry cleaning.
Actually, Kranefuss, 55 and ever the stoic German, would have said nothing of the kind.
``The way I do things, I make a decision and then I never look back,'' he said last week.
It's just that things were so bad.
``John wasn't happy. Tim wasn't happy. I wasn't happy,'' Kranefuss said. ``We had a few shouting matches. The worst thing was having everyone tiptoe around the real problems.''
Going into the first Michigan race in June, Andretti had two 10th-place finishes and was 22nd in points. Not bad for a first-year team, you say? The rookie owner didn't think so.
But after Andretti finished fourth at Michigan, the mood changed.
``From there, the whole attitude changed,'' Kranefuss said. ``Things now have not only settled, they're constantly improving.''
Earlier this month, when Andretti won the pole at Darlington, it was even more evidence that the team was becoming a team.
``I thought I knew a lot about Winston Cup racing,'' Kranefuss says now, ``and I actually knew very little.''
He does know about life.
Born in Muenster, Germany, shortly after the start of World War II, Kranefuss endured an early childhood filled with fire and destruction.
``It was sort of part of you,'' he said. ``You didn't know anything else. When there were bombing raids, you went in the shelter. I remember endless nights in the shelter, hot, burning, fires. You grew up that way.''
After the war, it didn't take long for the family dry-cleaning business to prosper again. But Michael had become obsessed with the automobile. He took his first ride when he was 7. Before too many more years, he was riding his bicycle 150 miles to see races at the legendary Nurburgring track. And then he began racing sports cars himself.
He spent less than a year working in the family business before going to work with a wealthy racing friend. And after he developed a financing plan for the friend's proposed race track, he landed a job in 1968 as assistant manager of the competitions department of Ford of Germany and began making the transition from racer to racing executive.
In late 1980, he moved to the United States to direct Ford's worldwide racing program. But after 15 years, he was ready for a change.
And he has no regrets joining the good ol' boys instead of the champagne-and-caviar circuit.
``It doesn't bother me because the racing is great. In Formula One, if (Michael) Schumacher or (Damon) Hill get a flat tire, they've still got plenty of time to at least get back in the points.
``Here, the guys who are running 25th or 26th are fighting just as hard as the first- and second-place guys. You don't have that anywhere else.
``The competition part of it is unreal in Winston Cup racing. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else on a Sunday afternoon.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Michael Kranefuss, a native of Germany, once directed Ford's
worldwide racing programs.
by CNB