November 3, 1985
A broken rocker caused Horst Kroll of Toronto to settle for an 11th place finish at the SCCA Can-Am in St Petersburg, Florida, ending his streak of top 10 finishes at a Can-Am series record of 18.
For Kroll, the weekend was nothing but expensive and disappointing right from the beginning. Arriving at his hotel, Horst was informed his tow vehicle had broken down in North Carolina and the cars would not be arriving in time for Friday morning practice. As Friday wore on more frustration set in with the team and cars a complete no show, leaving Kroll a spectator as championship rival Rick Miaskiewicz got in valuable track time.
Saturday morning the cars and crew arrived shortly before the final qualifying session, leaving Kroll basically a shot in the dark on setup. With Miaskiewicz grabbing the pole, Kroll used his years of experience to secure a fifth on the grid with three 2-liter cars separating them. To have any chance to win the title, Kroll would need to win the race and Miaskiewicz finish outside the top five positions.
The race began with Kroll working his way to second behind Miaskiewicz. Disaster would hit around mid race with Kroll coming to the pits with a engine misfire. Horst who never says quit jumped from the car and went strait to the tool box. As expected a broken rocker was the culprit. After replacing the broken rocker Kroll jumped back into the cockpit and fought his way back to an 11th place finish, wrestling second place in the championship away from race winner Lou Sell. Second place finisher Rick Miaskiewicz was the 1985 Can-Am Champion. With his 11th place finish, Kroll's streak of top 10 finishes ended at a Can-Am record of 18. However with his desperate repair, Kroll managed to keep the record of the most consecutive finishes alive.
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