Horst Kroll, a 1994 inductee into the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame, passed away on October 26 at the age of 81. After escaping from his East German homeland in the late 1950s, the Scarborough, Ontario, resident enjoyed a racing career than spanned more than 25 years, with success in both Canada and the USA. In 1964 and ’65 he won the Canadian Formula Vee championship, then claimed the overall Canadian National Driving Championship in 1968, behind the wheel of a six-year-old two-liter Kelly-Porsche — the same car with which he’d beaten the factory Porsches in a USAC sports car race at Watkins Glen.
Kroll contested the North American Formula 5000 championship between 1969-’76, and when those cars morphed into the new-era, single-seat Can-Am cars, he made the switch as well. In 1986, having finished 2nd and 3rd in the series points for the two previous seasons, he won the final Can-Am championship driving a Frissbee GR3-Chevrolet. Upon retiring from the cockpit, the German-born mechanic continued to operate Kroll’s Auto Service in West Hill, Ontario, a shop specializing in VW and Porsche repairs. To his surviving family and his many friends in the sport Vintage Racecar offers its sincerest condolences.
