Robinson ready to break new ground

Mike Harris

Thursday, April 26, 2001 | 11:58 a.m.

FONTANA, Calif. - Shawna Robinson thinks she can make history without being considered a NASCAR sideshow.

"This is no gimmick," she insists. "I know I'm capable of driving in Winston Cup. Now all I have to do is go out there and prove it."

She'll have that opportunity this weekend at California Speedway, where the 36-year-old mother of two will try to qualify for the NAPA Auto Parts 500. That would make her the first woman to drive in stock car racing's top series since Patty Moise in 1989.

But Robinson wants even more, and car owner Michael Kranefuss thinks she has a chance to become the first regular. At the very least, the plan is to make her the first to compete in more than a handful of Cup races in a single season since Robin McCall in 1982.

"I think she's got the stuff," said Kranefuss, a former partner of Roger Penske in a Winston Cup team as well as the former boss of Ford's worldwide motorsports program.

Kranefuss has announced a six-race schedule for this year, and has enough confidence in Robinson that's he planning a full-time Winston Cup effort next season even though no sponsorship money has yet materialized.

"Now we've got sponsorship for four of the six races this year and there are some big companies, not traditional racing sponsors, who see this as a unique opportunity for a female athlete in a male-dominated culture," he said.

Robinson, who also owns and operates a home decorating company, understands the economics of the situation. But right now, she's ready to strap herself in and begin the quest for enough speed to make the show this weekend.

"All I've been doing is talking to potential sponsors and doing media interviews," she said, smiling brightly. "Come Friday, my focus will be on that car and nothing else."

After showing racing potential in the Busch Series as runner-up for rookie of the year in 1992 and winning a pole in Atlanta in 1994, Robinson took a five-year break to start a family and a business.

But Robinson, a racer half her life, found it hard to shake the urge to get behind the wheel.

James Finch gave her the opportunity to get back in a race car in 1999 in Daytona. Robinson took advantage, and was second in the ARCA race - the best finish by a woman in that series.

Kranefuss, then partnered with Winston Cup driver Jeremy Mayfield, stepped up last year and put Robinson in a full-time ARCA ride while formulating a plan for her future and his return to Winston Cup.

All the plotting, planning and talking has finally led to the first big step.

"We're going to see what we're made of," Kranefuss said. "Nobody is going to give her any breaks because that's the way stock car racing is. But I have no trouble believing she'll qualify because she's fast."

There was some question, though, when Robinson tested last month on the 2-mile California oval.

"She crashed the car on our first day in California, and her confidence was shattered," Kranefuss said. "But the team stuck with her, and she got faster and faster and, at the end, she was as quick as anybody."

If she can clear the first hurdle, Robinson will find out quickly how she is perceived by her competitors.

"The big thing is she's not going out there with some kind of agenda," Kranefuss said. "She just wants people to think of her as a race driver. She's got speed and fitness, and will listen. And she can endure a lot of pain."

And Kranefuss believes the road might not be so bumpy.

"There were four or five times she was put in the wall in ARCA because guys would say, 'I can't have a woman passing me,"' he said. "I believe everything's going to be more subtle, more sympathetic in Winston Cup."

Mayfield, against whom she now aspires to race, doesn't think Robinson needs any sympathy.

"I'd put her up against just about anybody in ARCA and up against most in Busch," he said. "She probably has some Winston Cup guys beat, too."

Although Robinson understands what all the fuss is about, she doesn't want to get too caught up in it.

"You know, when I put on my helmet and get into the car, nobody can tell if I'm a man or a woman," she said. "I don't want people saying, 'Hey, look at that woman driver go.' I want them saying, 'Hey, look at that 84 car go.' "