Horst Kroll

[4] Wright, John (July, 2002) Wins in a 356 Carrera at Mosport, the road course since named Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, and Harewood Acres, another airport circuit, led to Quebec star Jacques Duval inviting Kroll to co-drive his Porsche 904 GTS in long-distance races.

Duval entered them in the 1967 Sebring 12 Hours, then the major endurance event in North America, after the duo finished third in their first outing, Mosport's 6-Hour Sundown Grand Prix.

[5] "Horst was as accomplished behind the wheel as he was under the hood of a Porsche," Duval wrote in his memoir, crediting Kroll for preparing the cars for the endurance races as well as setting the pace.

[7] Kroll's best Sebring result came in 1979, second in GTU and seventh overall, driving a Porsche 911 Carrera RSR with Rudi Bartling, a fellow member in Toronto's Deutscher Automobil Club.

Although the Kelly's Porsche engine was less than half the size of the American V-8's, Kroll scored a 9th at Watkins Glen and 12th at Mid-Ohio, both races won by Mark Donohue in the Penske McLaren M6A.

But Eppie Wietzes dominated the Gulf Canada series; Kroll finished second behind him in four consecutive races and the first two of four in 1970, making him runner-up in the championship in successive years.

In so doing Kroll gained a fresh start in the Lola T300 in which he'd previously contested 26 F5000 outings, sporting a new body crafted by fellow Canadian Roy Hayman.

[15] Staying on rain tires put Kroll in front but slowed his pace so he finished third - a bittersweet podium that would be his best result over the first eight years of the revived Cana-Am.

[17] He became newly competitive in 1983 when his first major sponsorship enabled him to re-body his Lola T330 as a near clone to the Galles Frissbee that Al Unser Jr. drove to the 1982 championship and acquire a 550-horsepower VDS-built Chevrolet engine.

Also working in Kroll's favour, front-running teams VDS, Rick Galles and Paul Newman followed four-time champion Carl Haas's 1982 move to Indy Car racing, levelling the Can-Am playing field by their absence.

[23] He committed to defending his CAT championship in 1987 and pledged his team's cars availability for guest drivers to create larger starting fields, as he had with young Tracy at Mosport's Can-Am finale.

So it was Villeneuve Sr. drove the KR4 to second behind Bill Tempero in CAT's visit to Canada's best-known oval, Sanair Raceway, QC with Kroll fourth in KR3 and John Macaluso sixth in KR5.