Historic Formula One racer Brad Krause lost his battle with cancer on January 24, in Greenport, N.Y. Krause was 58 years old. A long-time historic race competitor, both in the U.S. and abroad, he raced a variety of machines including most recently a March Formula One car and then a BRM P180.
Krause was born in Burbank, California, on July 24, 1948 and, after graduating high school, served in the army in South Vietnam. Once back in the states, Krause went back to school at Santa Barbara City College, where he met future business partner Paul Orfalea. Orfalea and Krause went on, in 1972, to found a copy-center business, which catered to the local college crowd. This enterprise went on to become the hugely successful Kinkos copy chain, of which Krause was president of the Northwest division. “Brad was open to new experiences and, as a partner eager to try new things,” Orfalea said in a statement, “Brad ran his company with a surfer’s laid-back yet competitive attitude.” Orfalea went on to say that “He was a runner, a surfer, a windsurfer, a motorcyclist, and a competitive racecar driver. One friend said Brad probably loved photography as much as he did because you can take a picture in one eight-thousandth of a second.” According to Krause’s wife Stuie, “Brad had a tendency to challenge himself. So everything was big about Brad’s life. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the toy, the bigger the pleasure. He just had a great zest for life.”
by Casey Annis
