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They give you back the ability to move around your own home. Folds back — gets in nobody's way. CALL OR STOP BY FOR A FREE DEMONSTRATION. STAIR-GLIDE' LARRY ARONOFF ACTON RENTAL & SALES 891-6500 540-5550 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."