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46
FRIDAY, JULY 6, 1990
Traveling Man
MIKE ROSENBAUM
Special to The Jewish News
R
acing cars run mil-
lions of miles each
year around North
American tracks. And Mike
Harris, who is not a race car
driver, puts in almost as
many miles, going from rac-
ing circuit-to-circuit as the
Associated Press' auto racing
editor.
Harris, 47, who has Detroit-
area relatives, has a home in
Westfield, N.J., not far from
the AP office in New York Ci-
ty. But he does not get to
spend much time at home —
his job keeps him on the road
about 40 weeks per year.
Harris and his wife, Judy,
have two teenaged children.
"I don't like being gone this
much from them, really, but
that's just part of the job.
They do travel with me when
we can do that."
For nine years, Harris says,
his family traveled with him
all summer. "We used to just
all travel in the station wagon
with the clamshell-top for the
luggage. They called us the
`Jewish gypsies.' We just went
from race to race."
Now son Tory is 16 and
daughter Lanni is 15 and
"they're too old for that now,"
Harris says. "They want to
spend some time at home" in
the summer.
On the plus side, says Har-
ris, his job "does give us an op-
portunity to go to some very
nice places. We've met some
wonderful people, some in-
teresting people. Most of our
friends are people from the
racing circuit."
Harris was born in
Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in
Madison, Wis. He met Judy
at the University of Wiscon-
sin. They married after she
graduated.
Harris worked for Rockford
Newspapers in Illinois for 18
months after his graduation,
then moved to AP as Indiana
sports editor.
He covered all sports, in-
cluding, of course, the In-
dianapolis 500, where he
made his first racing contacts.
He stayed in Indiana for five
years, then moved to
Cleveland as AP's northeast
Ohio sports editor for five
years. In 1979, when AP's
motor sports editor left, Har-
ris was asked to take the job.
"It was a promotion," he
says. "It meant moving to
Mike Harris:
Ex-"Jewish gypsy."
New York City, where our
main office is, and getting one
of the 14 major sports beats in
the world's largest news-
gathering organization. I
could hardly turn it down, so
I took it, although I had se-
cond thoughts about it
because of all the travel in-
volved, and a young family,
and so forth. But my wife was
very supportive about the pro-
motion and the move."
Despite his schedule, the
family has strong ties to their
Jewish community. They
belong to Temple Emanuel in
Westfield. Harris is a member
of both the temple's men's
club and B'nai B'rith. Tory
was recently confirmed at the
temple while Lanni is involv-
ed in its youth grup.
Harris says he meets few
Jews on the racing circuit.
Most are fellow journalists or
public relations people.
Religion "doesn't have much
bearing on my job. I'm total-
ly accepted in this business.
I've had to miss some big
events because of b'nai mitz-
vah in the family and things
like that. And when Yom Kip-
pur and Rosh Hashanah come
around, I've missed some
sports events."
Harris says he now enjoys
the sport — he didn't at first
— but he likes the people even
more.
"Racing is truly a com-
munity," he explains. "It's a
very nice group of people, very
interesting. As a writer, if you
can't find a story to write
about auto racing, any time of
the day, any day of the week,
any week of the year, you're
not trying. It's just that kind
of sport. There's always
'something going on that's
worth writing about."
Harris, who has come to
know many racers well — in-
cluding this year's Detroit
Grand Prix winner, Michael
Andretti — says the drivers
are not reckless people.
"I don't think they're
daredevils. I don't believe
these are people with a death
wish — or any of those other
stereotypes. These are very
responsible, bright men and
women who simply enjoy the
world of speed and
technology. They enjoy being
part of this whole ambiance.
"They are incredibly bright
as a group, incredibly
thoughtful in terms of their
attitudes about things. They
understand what it is they're
doing, how dangerous it is.
There is a certain amount of
`It's not going to always be
the other guy? Nevertheless,
they do accept the risk.
They're in it despite the risk,
not because of it."
Harris, who has covered all
nine Detroit Grand Prix
events, often spends his June
17 birthday in Detroit. Last
Sunday, his media friends
gave him a cake and sang
"Happy Birthday" to him in
the media room on race-day
morning.
The oldest of five children,
Harris remained in Detroit
last Monday to visit and play
golf with his next-oldest
brother, Richard, and his wife
Laurie, who live in
Southfield. ,
Harris writes hundreds of
articles each year for 1,800
newspapers worldwide. But
his name is not well-known
away from the racing and
media communities. "Most
wire service people are rather
anonymous, outside the
business," he says.
Occasionally he does ask for
special non-racing
assignments, landing such
plums as the last two summer
Olympics, for which he did
editing and covered wrestling.
"I'm very happy with what
I'm doing," he says. "If I stay
with AP, which I assume I'm
going to, the only move up-
ward I can make would be to
go into administration.
"That does not appeal to
me, because I love writing.
Writing is what I got into this
business for and it's what I
want to keep doing."