about me

Born in Windsor,Ont.,Canada, I became a regular fan at the Checkerflag Speedway from the age of 6. My father helped out on the #43 Bob Merrifield late model. We often travelled to Delaware Speedway and Cayuga Speedway for special events. I remember a Petty Kit-car which was built for Bob to drive one year, the only dodge on the circuit . Grew up with driver favorites like Jr.Hanley, Jack Monaghan, Don Biederman, Randy Slack, Earl Ross,and of course my favorite Bob.

Moved away from Windsor at the age of 10 and never returned to the tracks until I was 18. Then it      would be a different experience. Initially at Flamboro Speedway (outside of Hamilton ,Ontario, Canada) my Dad started to drive a challenger car. He began in a 1976 Chevrolet Malibu Classic about mid-season. So by season end I was sneaking out during hotlaps to see what it would be like. I can remember the first time coming in from practice and my Dad reached in the car and grabbed my hand. A little confused by his action, he later told me he was checking to see if I was shaking . The hand was still, so in the off season a second Malibu was built. Dad drove the new one and I inherited my first car.
The Question Why Craneris: my last name is "Cran"dall and our crew chief was Mike "Eris"on , so we called it Craneris racing .
We drove in the challenger class,father and son, numbers #25 (Dad) and #26 (myself). We kept the numbers in digital format so we could switch numbers if needed for points. My first track was Varney Speedway in Durham,Ont. The year was a long one with only a few cars in the class and me on a big learning curve. My second year we went back to Flamborough for regular Saturday night racing. By the third year I had finished 7th in points (approx 45 regulars). But that was it for me, University was complete and I needed to relocate for career purposes. My father continued to race for three more years in Ontario, winning his share of races before he packed it all in.

So several years later after following NASCAR and increasing a personal diecast collection, I found Nascar3. N3 is SimRacing game played on your personal PC. I had purchased N2 two years earlier but after couple months of playing found the game to be missing something. I found everything in N3 , including interaction with other drivers. With over 5,000 drivers online and 1,000 who are very active I found a home. Purchased the game in April of 2000 and its hard to go a day without having at least one race. My first wheel was a Microsoft ForceFeedback. My smartest move was getting away from Dega and running tailend at other tracks learning lines, saying "pass me low" as I was lapped almost ever race I entered. Soon guys would offer setups or suggest public ones to try or modify. Eventually top 10's turned into top 5's, and even the odd win.

First big move was joining Team CanAm racing. We are 4 members strong (now 7) and definitely known in the sim racing community as kind, helpful but still very competitive. Now with several months of N4 behind us the drivers have been seperated by those who can and those who cant. An average person playing the sim first time would spin the car or damage the car every lap. With 23 different tracks , practice, patience and some talent is required. Small changes to swaybars, trackbars, compression rebound, springs, wedges, gear ratios, and so on... let you really understand the frustrations of a NASCAR crewchief. Throw in mother nature to the track conditions and you better be a closet engineer to set these cars up. If you have any questions I will be willing to help, please feel free to email me. I may not know the answers myself but have many options to find them for you.

Purchased a TSW2 in August 2001 which is a very tough wheel with a lifetime warranty. Cost above $350 US but worth every penny. Looking forward to teaching my wheel a few tricks but right now it is teaching me, practice , practice.
Now after N4 we started running N2002 in Feb 2002, looks like an updated version will come every year from EASports and Papyrus. Still not the fastest but try to be clean and consistent. Just like NASCAR everytime you think you are gaining ground some rookie comes along and shows you what its like to be young and have no fear. Over the past 2 years have been to victory lane many times (winning around 10% of races entered) and have 7 League Championships thanks to consistency. Enjoy some pictures below of my greatest joy, my family.

Update: April 2005. Still with TeamCanAm and now the administor of our oldest league CCRL.
Now racing in 7 leagues a week including the DMP , Dale Earnhardt Jrs personal league. I have finished 6th and 8th in points the last two seasons there.