Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 24, 1995 TAG: 9509250099
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
He could have been a dry-cleaning magnate, but he showed so little interest, 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 Company's worldwide racing programs.
But when Michael Kranefuss decided to retire last year - and decided to form his own race team - he did not return to his native Germany. He did not go to Formula One, or even the IndyCar series.
Kranefuss moved to North Carolina and went stock car racing. He formed his own team with IndyCar owner Carl Haas, and hired driver John Andretti and longtime crew chief Tim Brewer.
But if you had asked him earlier this summer how things were going, he might have told you it was time to reconsider dry cleaning.
Actually, Kranefuss would have said nothing of the kind.
``The way I do things, I make a decision and then I never look back,'' he said this week as his team prepared for today's Goody's 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
If he had looked back, he would not have liked what he saw.
``John wasn't happy. Tim wasn't happy. I wasn't happy,'' said Kranefuss, 55. ``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 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. It was just talking and believing what John was saying.''
This month, when Andretti won the pole at Darlington, it was even more evidence the team was becoming a team.
``I thought I knew a lot about Winston Cup racing,'' Kranefuss said. ``I actually knew very little.''
He does know about life.
Born in Munster, Germany, shortly after the start of World War II, Kranefuss endured an early childhood filled with 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, houses burning, fires ... you grew up that way.''
Kranefuss talks about this experience matter of factly. ``You don't think much of it,'' he said. But he remembers one day so vividly, he undoubtedly never will forget the date: Oct.10, 1944.
``There was a huge raid, and my grandmother got killed in the bombing,'' he said. ``We came out of the shelter, and when we went back to the house, she was lying in the street. She never made it to the shelter.''
After the war, it didn't take long for the Kranefuss family's dry cleaning business to prosper again, since the occupying armies needed their laundry done.
But Michael had become obsessed with the automobile. He spent less than a year working in the family business (``It would have killed me'') before going to work for a wealthy racing friend.
He landed a job in 1968 as the assistant manager of the competitions department of Ford of Germany and began making the transition from racer (he retired as a driver in 1971) 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 about joining the good old boys instead of the champagne-and-caviar circuit. The competition part of it is unreal in Winston Cup racing,'' he said. ``I wouldn't want to be anywhere else on a Sunday afternoon.''
by CNB