Draft:Horst Kroll Racing Driver

Horst Kroll (May 15, 1936 - October 26, 2017) won the final Can-Am racing championship in 1986, 20 years after Formula One world champion John Surtees won the inaugural series for high-powered sports racing cas on Canadian and American circuits.

Late in his career at age 50, Kroll became only the second Canadian Can-Am champion, following Jacques Villeneuve Sr. in 19983.

He led the first race of the revived series at Mont-Tremblant, Que., in 1977, three years after the Sports Car Club of America had folded the original. His first win, however, remained beyond his grasp until 1985 in his 62nd Can-Am start. Kroll was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 1994, in only the second group named to the fledgling institution.

Early career

Kroll left his family in East Germany in 1954, at age 18, and made his way to Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen where he was hired by Porsche as an apprentice assembling the company's first vehicle, the 356 sports car. He was transferred to servicing cars owned by Porsche family members and select clients. On weekends he'd don his company overalls to gain admittance to major races and offer to help the Porsche team's mechanics in the pits.

His first foray into racing followed Porsche arranging employment at Volkswagen Canada, which sold Porsches at the time. Fellow specialist Ludwig Heimrath already was racing a 356; In 1961 Kroll finished third in another 356 at Ste. Eugene, a circuit on a deserted airfield in Eastern Ontario, his initial step in what would evolve into 26 years of full-time racing. He advanced to the more powerful 356 Carrera and as the wins accumulated at Mosport (currently called Canadian Tire Motorsport Park) and the Harewood Acres airport circuit, prominent Quebec racer Jacques Duval asked him to co-drive his Porsche 904 GTS in endurance races.

Kroll's first championship came in 1964 in Formula Vee, in which the low-budget racing cars were based on Volkswagen Beetle components. He drove a Huron Vee but later switched to a Kelly Vee for another two series championships.

Encouraged by their third place, Duval entered them in North America's premier endurance race, the 12 Hours of Sebring, after he and Kroll combined for a third-place in Mosport's 1965 six-hour race into darkness, the Sundown Grand Prix. In Florida they drove the 904 GTS to second in the Sports 2000 class, 16th overall. Returning in 1968 with Duval's 911S they improved to ninth overall, third among GT 2.0 entries.

Kroll earned the 1968 Canadian Road Racing Championship driving the Kelly Porsche, a copy of the Lotus 23 built by his friend and fellow racer, Wayne Kelly, following a class win in 1967. The championship fired his ambition, but without commensurate financial gain. "I got a busted trophy and a handshake," Kroll told The Toronto Star. "My mechanic got more than I did - he won $500 worth of tools."

Still, Kroll set out to defend his title. The Canadian championship switched in 1969 to open-wheel formula cars that were known as Formula 5000 in some countries, Formula A in others including Canada. Kroll bought a new Lola T142 and tested it in two British races in preparation for the new Gulf Canada Series.

Eppie Wietzes, another new arrival in Canada, his family having emigrated from the Netherlands, dominated the Canadian races in 1969 and 1970. Kroll finished second or third with such frequency he stood second in championship points both years. He complained his modest budget prevented him from fighting for wins, save one victory at Harewood in 1969.

The simultaneous American Continental Formula 5000 Championship attracted Wietzes and Kroll among a handful of Canadians, but proved even tougher. In eight years in this league Kroll's strongest effort earned him 12th in championship points in 1976 with a fifth place at Watkins Glen, N.Y., his best result. Underlining the quality of the competitors, F5000 title winners Jody Scheckter and Alan Jones went on to win Formula One world championships, as did Mario Andretti, the runner-up to Brian Rodman in the second of his three consecutive F5000 championships.

Away from the open-wheeled formula cars, endurance racing burnished Kroll's reputation. Mike Rahal, whose son Bobby later won the Indianapolis 500 and three Indy car championships, in 1971 invited Kroll to co-drive his Porsche 906K in the Watkins Glen Camel GT Challenge. Although they failed to finish, Rahal recruited Kroll again in 1972 as the second driver in his Lotus 47; they stood 23d in the Glen's 500-km race and 11th in the 250-mile Daytona Finale.

Kroll's winning the 1975 Sundown Grand Prix followed him attending the race as a spectator: Harry Bytzek convinced him to co-drive his 911 Carrera RSR. Kroll's best career result at Sebring followed in 1979, second in GTU and seventh overall in a Porsche 911 Carrera RSR he co-drove with Rudiy Bartling, yet another emigrant from Germany and a fellow member of Toronto's Deutscher Automobil Club.

The Can-Am years

The SCCA reinvented the Can-Am in 1977, replacing Formula 5000 as its premier professional series. Competitors rebuilt their F5000 cars with bodies enclosing the wheels so they resembled the legendary cars that had commanded international attention from 1966 through 1974. In Kroll's case his Can-Am entry was based on a Lola T300 he'd bought in 1972 and driven in 19 F5000 races.

In the opening Can-Am at rainy Mont-Tremblant, Kroll turned heads by taking the lead as other drivers pitted for slick tires better suited to the drying track. Staying on rain tires, however, dropped Kroll to third at the finish, a bittersweet podium that would be his best result over the first six years of the reborn series.

In 1983 new sponsorship enabled him to rebuild a Lola T330 as a near clone of the Galles Frisbee that Al Unser Jr. drove to the 1982 championship. Also working in his favour, the Can-Am playing field was levelled by top teams moving to Indy car racing, including those of Rick Gilles, Paul Newman and four-time champion Carl Haas.

Jacques Villeneuve Sr. raced to the 1983 championship with three wins in the ex-Unser Galles Frisbee his team purchased for his campaign. But Kroll successfully challenged for top-five finishes in the Chipwich Challenger, as the Lola T330-become-Frissbee KR3 promoted an ice cream product. Fourth at Trois-Rivieres, Que., and Sears Point, CA along with fifths at Mosport and a second contest at Sears Point lifted Kroll to fifth in the 1983 series.

He climbed to third in 1984. While Ireland's Michael Roe dominated with seven wins in 10 races, Kroll took second at Brainerd, MN, and Road Atlanta, GA, along with a third in Mosport's autumn race following fourths at Trois-Rivieres and the season opener at Mosport, fifth at Lime Rock, CT.

His first Can-Am win in 62 starts opened the 1985 season at Mosport. With Roe departed for a career in endurance racing, American newcomer Rick Miaskiewicz immediately stated his case by taking the lead off the start in the same Galles Frisbee in which Unser Jr. and Villeneuve Sr. had won championships. But Kroll was poised for victory after Miaskiewicz spun off at Turn One in only the 18th of 60 laps. Making the day even more celebratory for the Horst Kroll Racing team, Joe DeMarco finished third in the Lola T300 that later became the Frissbee KR5.

Although Miaskiewicz took the championship with three wins in six races, Kroll held second behind him each time for second in points as well. The 1986 series began at Mosport once more, but this time Kroll qualified fastest and won ahead of IMSA star Bill Adam in another Kroll entry, a Frisbee KR4. The SCCA announced it was folding the series after an abbreviated schedule of only four races. Kroll earned his championship by following up on his opening victory with a fourth at Summit Point, CA, second at St. Louis, and second again at Mosport's autumn event, to Paul Tracy in Kroll's KR4, the 17-year-old's first outing beyond the starter formulas on his way to Indy car stardom.

The teams formed a new organization, Championship Auto Teams, as a showcase for their cars. A single race at Halley, OK, was added to the four Can-Ams to create the 1986 Thunder Car Championship. Kroll earned the CAT title along with his Can-Am laurels by finishing sixth at Hallett. For the 1987 CAT Thunder Car Championship, he made his backup cars available to guest drivers as he had with Adam and Tracy in 1986, hoping to improve the spectacle with larger starting fields.

Villeneuve Sr. drove the Frissbee KR4 to second behind Bill Tempero on Quebec's best-known oval, Sanair Speedway, with Kroll fourth in the KR3 and John Macaluso sixth in KR5. When Tempero won again on the Milwaukee oval on his way to the CAT championship, Kroll took third in KR3 and Jimmy Slack tenth in KR5. In his final outing in his Can-Am/CAT KR3, at Phoenix International Raceway Nov. 1, 1987, Kroll finished eighth for third in CAT championship points. After Tempero introduced the American Indycar Series for superannuated Indy cars in 1988, displacing Can-Am cars to the sidelines, Kroll retired from professional racing. An handful of endurance races at Mosport, co-driving with friends, completed his career.