Today, Oct 26, marks three years since the passing of Canadian Motorsports Hall of Famer and early Canadian racing legend, Horst Kroll.

Unfortunately in October of 2017, I was at the height of dealing with my mom's health issue's, and wasn't able to pay tribute to my friend Horst Kroll back then, so I'd like to look back almost 25 years, and talk a little bit about the time I got to know Horst Kroll.

For those who don't know, Horst had his shop in Highland Creek, in the very east end of Toronto, and was, at least among “car guys” in the area, a bit of a local legend.

I grew up in West Hill (the home of Paul Tracy) which is a stones throw from Horst's Highland Creek shop, and growing up as a car guy and racing fan in West Hill, had been quite familiar with Horst Kroll from a young age.

In fact, his shop was right across the street from one of our favourite high school stops, Shamrock Burgers (still a favourite stop of mine), so I was regularly in the vicinity of the Chipwhich Charger.

I was also lucky enough, in time, to be able to call Horst a friend.

In 1996, we started our auto repair shop just down the road from Horst’s place in Highland Creek, on Old Kingston Rd. Our shop was very well equipped for a brand new shop, so we reached out to a number of the shops that dotted that part of Highland Creek, offering to perform work for them they may not have been equipped to do themselves. Kroll Automotive was one of those shops that my business partner John dropped some info off, on a particularly slow December day in 1996.

We didn't hear anything back from Kroll all winter, but early the next spring, the spring of 1997, Horst came by on a test drive and asked if we could do an air conditioning refill on a Porsche. After an affirmative response from John, he was off with a quick spin of the tires, and a cloud of dust.

A few minutes later, Horst was back with a Porsche 928, tossed the keys to John, and pulled a gas powered scooter from the back seat, one that he terrorized paddocks across North America with, and was off again.

When the car was done, I dropped it back to Horst's, planning to walk back to our shop, the walk taking less than 10 minutes, and me not equipped with a gas powered scooter.

For any body that hadn't been to Horst's shop, the wall across from his desk was filled with newspaper clippings from his career, and of other racing events he felt were important.

As I looked at the wall of clippings, I began to ask him questions about different events and people he had memorialized on this wall, and slowly Horst began to suspect I may have more than just a passing fancy in racing.

Much to John's chagrin, we struck up a wide ranging conversation about racing that morning, that saw me return to our shop almost 2 hours later.

As those who know me, again much to John's chagrin, I can talk racing all day. As it turns out, so can Horst. And of course, he had a much deeper well of memories and experiences to draw from than I do, so the conversations became more and more regular, again much to John's chagrin.

One morning, early in the spring of 1997, I saw Horst motoring his way towards our shop on his (in)famous scooter. I didn't recall having a car of Horst's in the shop, so shouted a quick question to John, only to be confirmed, no, nothing from Kroll in the shop.

Host leaned his scooter up against the front window of the shop, popped in and sat down.

“Did you watch the race yesterday, what did you think?”, he asked, referring to the previous days Grand Prix, and we got in to a wide ranging conversation about the race, tactics and strategy, Williams vs Ferrari, Villeneuve vs Schumacher.

John popped his head in to say hi to Horst, realized the conversation was about racing, much to his chagrin, and was quickly back out in the shop again. It turns out John, while the best mechanic I have ever worked with, was not a fan of racing, much to my chagrin.

A visit from Horst became a regular occurrence after every Grand Prix that season, me a huge Jacques Villeneuve fan, and Horst a huge Michael Schumacher fan, arguing and debating who was better, who was going to win, was the Williams better or was the Ferrari better? After every Grand Prix that year, I could be sure of a visit from Horst and a deep, wide ranging conversation into the previous Grand Prix, and John would make sure he found a way to stay busy, out in the shop.

In the end, I think Horst was happy a Canadian won the championship, but deep down I think he still wanted Schumacher to win. While I got to celebrate the Villeneuve championship that fall of 1997, Horst would get a measure of revenge with a future Schumacher world championship 3 years later. And many times after that.

Over the next 10 years, we would ofter visit each other's shop to talk racing, but also to talk business, about the auto repair business, new equipment, new rules and new regulations. After all, Horst was not just a racing driver, but also a successful businessman, for a very long time, and we had an awful lot in common.

We struck up a friendship that first day in his shop that lasted until Horst passed away. After I left my shop on a full time basis to concentrate more on RaceCanada, I saw less of Horst, and after he sold his shop, it was less again, but I would still bump into him from time to time at Ted's Restaurant, perhaps the most famous diner in Toronto and another Highland Creek landmark.

The last time I saw Horst, in fact, was at Ted's the year before he passed away, having breakfast with another legend, long time motorsport journalist and his good friend Dan Proudfoot.

Kroll Automotive is long gone now, and we sold our shop last year, but I'll never forget that summer of '97 in Highland Creek when a motorsport legend came to visit and talk racing after every race in that most important of racing seasons for Canadian fans. Good times, indeed, and a friend that is truly missed.