SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1479178
Kroyer Racing Engines Kevin Kroyer By Dan Sanchez Before Kevin Kroyer built his first racing engine, he worked with his dad and experienced desert racer, Fritz Kroyer, and later earned a position with Walker Evans. It was here that Kevin Kroyer gained a higher level of experience in off-road, NASCAR, short-course, and more. Working alongside other legendary racing icons like Randy Anderson, John Nelson, Michael Gaughan, and many others, Kroyer began working and focusing on the engines. “At that time, Walker Evans would jump out of a Pro4 and move into a SCORE Trophy Truck. Then he’d move out of the Trophy Truck and jump into his NASCAR Super Truck. On top of that, we had multiple teams working with us who were also doing the same thing. So over the years, I gained a lot of experience of what the engine needed to do for each application.” Eventually, Kroyer opened his own business in 2000, earning a reputation with off-road racing teams and creating complete drivetrain packages. Some of the top teams in SCORE have and still are using Kroyer’s engines, achieving seven SCORE Engine Builder Of The Year Awards over his career. As the vehicles improved, so did the engines. “There are a lot more competitors in the SCORE Trophy Truck class that racers have to contend with,” says Kroyer. “The trend now is to move to big block power.” With more vehicles running AWD, Kroyer is being asked to make more horsepower, so the move to larger displacement engines is accommodating that. “Big-block engines have been around in off-road racing for decades, but with the addition of AWD, racers like Luke and Dan McMillin are needing more power for turning four wheels, as well as rotating larger 40-inch tires,” says Kroyer. “Adding more horsepower from a big-block engine allows teams to stay competitive with those vehicles and they are demonstrating how fast they can be.” Along with an increase in horsepower, Kroyer also says that data acquisition is more important to fine-tune the engine and drivetrain. “In the past, we recorded data in the vehicle and it was indispensable for post-race analysis. We even found ways to get data when the vehicles would pit,” says Kroyer. “Now, telemetry allows for the broadcast of information from the vehicle via cellular or satellite. We’ve been working on this system for a few years and Rob Mac had it at the SCORE Baja 1000 two years ago. Sometimes the signal is lost but in that race, we got all but 20-seconds of data. Now, the use of Starlink is going to be a game changer.” Everything Kroyer Racing Engines does aims to constantly improve their ability to inform teams and keep their engines in winning shape. “At the end of the day, we don’t want to lose customers,” he says. “A lot of race teams compete using their own money and we want to make sure they get the most out of their engines and stay competitive, but while also having fun. The competition is so tight now, and teams need to run a near-perfect race to win. For us, however, the worst thing that can happen is someone gets a bad experience and goes somewhere else, or worse, they quit the sport entirely. We want to make absolutely sure our engines run at optimal performance to get them to the finish line. This is why we put a lot of effort and experience into what we do.” SJ