The lasting legacy of a fallen Indycar rookie

Twenty-five years ago Indycar rookie Jeff Krosnoff lost his life in a crash in the Toronto street race, his car spearing into the debris fence after contact with Stefan Johansson.

His death was a terrible blow for the CART community and his little Arciero-Wells Racing team, but the tragedy also echoed around the world thanks to the many years that the Californian had spent racing in Japan.

His colleagues and rivals on the Far East scene included Eddie Irvine, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Mika Salo, Johnny Herbert, Jacques Villeneuve and Tom Kristensen, all of whom had also been hit by the loss of another of their small group, Roland Ratzenberger, just a couple of years earlier.

But no one took Krosnoff’s loss harder than his closest friend, Mauro Martini. Team-mates in Japanese Formula 3000, they also often shared drives in sportscar racing, including a season with TWR and Jaguar in 1991. With Irvine, they came tantalisingly close to winning Le Mans in 1994.

Off-track, Krosnoff and Martini shared an extraordinary bromance way before the term was coined, enjoying a genuine, deep friendship that was highly unusual in the competitive world of motor racing. The Italian regards 14 July 1996 as “the worst day of my life”.

“A day like that, it's still hard to get through even after 25 years,” he says. “For me it was a real tragedy, because I always think he was the brother I never had. I loved him like a brother, definitely.”

Krosnoff and Martini pictured before the start of the 1992 Suzuka WSPC race

Photo by: Adam Cooper

In the late eighties the Japanese racing scene was thriving, fuelled by backing from tyre companies and sponsors. There was a gold rush of drivers whose careers had stalled in Europe, and who could earn substantial salaries. In 1989 the F3000 field included Ross Cheever, Geoff Lees, Emanuele Pirro, Paolo Barilla, Fabrizio Barbazza, Jean Alesi and Martini, who had been a frontrunner in Italian F3 before making the move.

That year Krosnoff arrived on the scene as a complete unknown, and in unusual circumstances. He had raced in US Formula Atlantic and the SCCA pick-up truck series when wheel manufacturer SpeedStar came looking for an American driver to join its team in Japan. Krosnoff travelled over expecting to test an F3 car and found an F3000 machine – it was a huge step up from what he was used to, but he got the job.

Other drivers were a non-plussed by this newcomer, but the UCLA graduate soon won them over with his quirky humour, enthusiasm, and intelligence.

"The top Japanese drivers were very, very experienced. They had connections with the tyre suppliers, they had connections with the engine suppliers. It was tough for any of us [overseas drivers] to try to compete with them" Mauro Martini

“I remember this guy with blond hair arriving,” says Martini. “And I didn't know who he was. He wasn't famous at all, nobody knew about him, because he didn't have a background. All the other drivers were F3 champions, or had raced in [International] F3000 or F1.

“But I remember the first time I talked to him I found myself in harmony, in a good feeling with him, because he was very good guy. For me to be a good racing driver, you have to be a little nasty, a little mean. He wasn't in the right place, I think, because he was very, very nice and gentle.

"I think he was the first one to come to Japan with email. Nobody knew about that! He showed up with this small computer, and he was sending messages with email. And we were watching like, what the f*** is this? He was ahead of all of us."

Krosnoff had a lot of learning to do with the SpeedStar team in 1989, but he finished a respectable 10th in the championship. His rivals began to realise that he was a quick learner.

Jeff Krosnoff shows off his latest tech

Photo by: Adam Cooper

"It wasn't easy to come from trucks and Formula Atlantic and go into F3000,” says Martini. “We had the top Japanese drivers that were very, very experienced. They had connections with the tyre suppliers, they had connections with the engine suppliers. It was tough for any of us to try to compete with them.”

For 1990 Krosnoff joined Martini at Suntec, an outfit sponsored by eccentric businesswoman Yuko Yamazaki, who ran a chain of technical schools.

"At the end of the year my team wanted to do a second car, because they found another sponsor,” says Martini. “They asked me what do you think if we contact Jeff Krosnoff? And I was enthusiastic about it, he was the best team-mate I could have. Of course I said yes."

Martini and Krosnoff spent that year living not in exciting Tokyo but far from the action in dull Kofu, their mundane daily lives enriched only by the occasional visit from their respective wives, Barbara and Tracy.

In this pre-internet, pre-smartphone world their friendship deepened, as most of the time their only source of entertainment was talking to each other. Jeff’s quirky college humour and surfer dude persona somehow gelled with the Italian’s more serious approach.

“We were having lunch and dinner together, we were living in the same hotel, and so he became my teacher because my English wasn't good enough!” says Martini. “We were trying to do something during the day, but it was so boring because there was no television to watch, no internet, nothing. Just some small family restaurants. We were of course training one hour, and that was it. One day was very long...”

That year the pair also shared a Suntec-backed Ford RS500 in the local Group A championship – Jeff would routinely send race reports to Autosport, which appeared with his byline.

For 1991, Mrs Yamazaki paid a huge sum to Tom Walkinshaw to run a Jaguar XJR11 V6 turbo car in the Japanese sportscar series.

Martini and Krosnoff joined Leslie to race Jaguar at Le Mans in 1991

Photo by: Motorsport Images

“She made an impressive investment!” says Martini. “For us, it was good to have some experience with sportscars. That car was tough to run to the fuel against the Nissans and Toyotas. It had big potential, but with the Japanese regulations, it wasn't competitive enough because we were needed to save fuel, and that was a big problem."

The Suntec deal included a green-hued works XJR12 for Le Mans, where Krosnoff and Martini were joined by David Leslie. It was to be an eventful but disappointing race.

“We were pretty quick, but the race wasn't good, because we had a lot of problems,” Martini recalls. “First the suspension broke, and after we had a couple of other accidents. But the race was gone anyway because we lost for an hour early on. But then we could drive flat out, so we were having fun, basically.”

The 1991 Japanese season ended with an outing in Ross Brawn’s sensational XJR14 - “like a single seater car, with a roof” - at the Sugo finale, where Krosnoff and Martini drove alongside the Teo Fabi/David Brabham pairing. Engine failure ended their race.

"His car was not competitive. But anyway, his reputation was high, and teams were looking for him. So everybody understood that it wasn't his fault" Mauro Martini

That season, the pair moved to bustling Tokyo and the famed President Hotel, where most of the visiting racing drivers stayed. Their social scene suddenly became busier and they saw more of the likes of Irvine, although neither man was a party animal. Indeed Jeff didn’t touch alcohol – he would rather use up spare hours making Tamiya model kits.

“We could have fun,” says Martini. “It was definitely a much, much easier life for us. We had CNN to watch! We were always together. We were training together, eating together. Our lifestyle was the same, so we never had a fight or a discussion.”

When the Suntec money ran out, Krosnoff and Martini both moved to different F3000 teams for 1992. Krosnoff’s form with Jaguar also helped to land him a prestigious works Nissan Group C deal for the Japanese sportscar series, the only foreigner in a team dominated by veterans Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Masahiro Hasemi.

Krosnoff's prowess in Japanese F3000 was frequently hindered by average equipment

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Martini and Krosnoff hooked up again for the 1992 Daytona 24 Hours in a customer Nissan run by the FromA Nova team – it was Jeff’s first US race since 1988, and it was a big deal for him to return home for such a prestigious event.

“He was very happy,” says Martini, “because for him to get back to America in that style, it was like, 'Look what I did. I left with nothing and I came back, I drive for a works team, I have a good reputation.’ It was good and impressive for him.”

That year they also had an outing together in the Suzuka WEC race, finishing fourth in the FromA Nissan behind the Peugeot and Toyota atmo cars.

Martini won the 1992 F3000 title, but for several years Krosnoff was stuck in uncompetitive teams, earning the odd podium along the way.

"His car was not competitive,” says Martini. “But anyway, his reputation was high, and teams were looking for him. So everybody understood that it wasn't his fault."

A chance for both men to really make their names came at Le Mans in 1994 with SARD Toyota, Ratzenberger’s home for many years. The Austrian’s death at Imola had hit all of his friends in Japan very hard and, with his still name on the car and his helmet on display in the garage, it was an emotional weekend.

Irvine was drafted in as replacement third driver and the trio led in some style until the gear linkage failed on Krosnoff with just over an hour to go. Somehow he fixed it and crawled back to the pits in third gear, but after a long stop for repairs the SARD team had to settle for second place.

“It was 27 years ago,” says Martini. “But still when I think about it, I get mad, I get really, really frustrated, because we won that race!

Late gearbox dramas robbed Krosnoff, Martini and Irvine of emotional Le Mans win in 1994

Photo by: Motorsport Images

“If it wasn't for Jeff, we would retire. If I was in the car, or Eddie was in the car, we would retire, because we didn't know how to fix it. It was in that moment of bad luck we were lucky enough to have Jeff in the car.

"He was pretty good with mechanical things. He came out of the car, he sat down on the back of the car, he moved something. He was smart enough to put it in third, so he could start with the clutch!

"The team wanted to honour Roland’s memory, putting his name on the car. And it would have been nice to win that race, to dedicate the victory, it would have been perfect. But it didn't happen.”

As Irvine, Frentzen and Salo made their way to F1, Martini and Krosnoff were both left treading water in Japan – indeed in 1995, Jeff found himself in the F3000 seat abandoned by the Finn.

"If it wasn't for Jeff, we would retire. If I was in the car, or Eddie was in the car, we would retire, because we didn't know how to fix it. It was in that moment of bad luck we were lucky enough to have Jeff in the car" Mauro Martini

That year they returned to Le Mans with SARD, this time with a hopeless Supra GT car – it somehow summed up the fact they both needed a change of scenery.

"Jeff showed how good he was going in Japan, making his career,” says Martini. “He knew he had much more chance to get to IndyCar than F1. Of course he wanted to go to F1, everybody wants to go to F1, but it's not that easy.”

Krosnoff networked hard in IndyCar, eventually landing a test at Homestead with Ganassi. Alex Zanardi was also present and got the drive, but the American had impressed.

Finishing P14 with Supra at 1995 Le Mans confirmed Krosnoff's need to move on

Photo by: Motorsport Images

“Chip Ganassi spoke very well about Jeff,” says Martini. “And he helped him to find the seat with Arciero-Wells for 1996. Jeff was very happy, because the team was small, but you have to enter somewhere.

“I tell you honestly, I had a moment of envy. Because I always thought, ‘I'm the fastest, I'm the top driver!’ Of course, I was happy for him, I was sad for myself, because I couldn't find a deal. At the end of '95, I had to decide what to do with my life, because I didn't want to continue forever in Japan after eight years. I wanted to go back in Europe or to go in the US.”

Krosnoff’s Japanese adventure was over after seven memorable years, and at 31, he was starting a new chapter. In the first half of 1996 he faced a steep learning curve, his progress not helped by the uncompetitive Toyota engine in his Reynard. However he showed steady improvement, and quickly made a lot of friends on the IndyCar scene.

He talked regularly on the phone with Martini, and there were even plans for Mauro to join him in a second Arciero entry in 1997.

“Maybe Arciero wanted to do a second car, and I was already in line to test the car to see if I could have a chance for '97,” he says. “So it was good, because he was working for me, and maybe in '97 we could be together.

“We were calling each other every two or three days. He always wanted me to go there, to show up to some races. And I was planning to fly there and stay with him and his team, to see how it works. I wanted to go to the US, and I had the chance with Jeff to have an open door."

Then came round 11 in Toronto. As usual, Martini was at home following his friend’s progress on Eurosport when a huge crash unfolded in the closing laps of the race.

Zanardi beat Krosnoff to Ganassi drive in 1996, but he got a foot in the door with Arciero-Wells

Photo by: Motorsport Images

“I remember I saw a car completely broken,” he recalls. “You couldn't see who the driver was, there was dust, there was debris everywhere. I didn't know who he was, but watching the car, I knew that the driver was dead, because nobody could survive such an accident.

“And they showed it again with the replays. In the moment I realised it was Jeff I threw the remote control at the television and broke the screen. I started to scream.

“I remember my wife was out in the garden with some friends. And they heard me screaming, and they couldn't understand what was going on, because I went into my room and I locked up the door. I didn't want to speak to anybody. I cried for two or three days. I couldn't stand it.”

"My racing career finished on July 14, 1996. Something broke inside me. I didn't want to continue. I did some racing, but my head wasn't like before. I wanted to stop" Mauro Martini

Sadly a Canadian marshal, Gary Avrin, also lost his life in the accident.

Martini was eventually able to contact Jeff’s wife: “I called Tracy up and her mother answered me, and she told me Tracy is waiting for you for the funeral, she wanted you to come. And I went to the funeral in LA. It's hard to describe the atmosphere. I stayed there in his house for four or five days with Tracy. And I came back home without my brother.”

Martini contested some GT races in 1997, and even returned to Japan for a Formula Nippon outing. But his heart wasn’t in it.

“That day everything finished,” he says. “And I wasn't the same anymore. My racing career finished on July 14, 1996. Something broke inside me. I didn't want to continue. I did some racing, but my head wasn't like before. I wanted to stop.

“He was maybe the nicest guy I ever met my life. It's sad to accept why good people die, and bad people live. It's hard to understand, but it's life. You have to accept it.”

Krosnoff is fondly remembered by Martini to this day

Photo by: Adam Cooper