Kroyer Racing Engines Just Keeps Winning

Kevin Kroyer should be used to success by now. Owner of Kroyer Racing Engines, the 44-year-old engine builder from Las Vegas, Nevada has just completed yet another Baja 1000. The results: a 2nd Class Championship in Trophy Truck along with 2, 3, 5, 6 and ninth place finishes in class and four of the top six overall. And what may be the most amazing feat to consider is that he did it building a full assortment of different platform engines, including not only Chevrolet and Dodge powerplants, but also two Toyotas, and some Hondas. How’s that for diversity?

The soft-spoken Kroyer has been building engines in the Las Vegas location since the beginning of 2000, but his professional engine building background stretches over the past 30 years. His father is partially to blame, Fritz Kroyer having won the highly heralded Mint 400 back in 1971 and lighting the fuse to the younger Kroyer’s off road interests. While Kevin prefers to build the engines rather than strap in behind the wheel, his zest for the sport is obvious when you start talking about any form of racing.

“I went to my first Baja 1000 in 1967 with my father and I grew up around the stars of the sport,” states Kroyer when asked about his first encounters with offroad competition. But those first racing efforts ended quickly, and it became clear that if he wanted to be involved in racing it would not be from the driver’s seat. As the result of answering an advertisement in Off-Road Action News, Kroyer landed a job as a prep mechanic for Walker Evans Racing where he would learn the business for the next ten years working first under John Garrison – the legendary engine builder. When Garrison retired, Kroyer took over the Evans racing engine building duties. The Evans job was an amazing training ground for not only engine building and truck construction but for business in general. In 1999, Kroyer faced a new challenge with the retirement of Walker Evans from competition. Kroyer took the controls of his own destiny establishing his own race engine facility with Michael Gaughan. Their first task: building engines for Mike’s son, Brendan, for the NASCAR Winston West Series.

“We built the shop to Las Vegas in an effort to be closer to Mike and his son’s base of operations,” stated Kroyer. “I had been approached by some folks directly involved with the Dodge NASCAR racing program and it seemed like the right things to do. It turned out to be the best move I could have made.”

Right out of the gate, Kroyer helped Brendan win the Winston West title in both 2000 and 2001. The following year, Brendan moved to the Craftsman truck Series further expanding the Kroyer circle track racing efforts and making them an even great player in the performance racing engine industry. A year later he was back in the off road business building engines for Brian Collins, a racer of note, who found the Kroyer Racing Engine facility in a unique way – he built the building that housed it. It seemed somehow logical that Kroyer would turn the tables and help build power and solve some engine and powertrain issues for Collins in return. As a result of their first efforts, Kroyer received the Collins Motorsport racing engine business and a ticket back into off road racing. With his renewed reintroduction to off road racing, Kroyer has regrown the business with an impressive number of SCORE and CORR (Championship Off Road Racing) tour event wins, as well as earning Rob MacCachren’s Ford the Pro 2 Series Championship and Mike Johnson’s Chevy the Rookie of the Year award.

Brand loyalty

Kroyer’s racing engine success has been documented with the many trophies earned by Kroyer-powered vehicles. Clearly the most amazing thing about this consistency is the diversity of the engines involved. But one thing that is consistent is the use of COMP Cams® valve train products across the board. It is unusual for one builder to have such devotion to single brand.

Said Kroyer, “I can’t think of a single engine type that we build that does not include COMP Cams® valve train parts. With three Winston West titles and nine Craftsmen truck series wins to our credit, it is clear that these parts works for us.”

In addition to the off road racing wins, Kroyer’s success with both carburetored and fuel injected engines is amazing. Despite requiring different styles of induction and fuel delivery based on cylinder head configuration and series rules, Kroyer and technical director Ron Hendrix have a “system” that works for determining just the right camshaft specs to get the job done.

“I call the folks at COMP Cams® all the time and they help me design and construct the camshafts we need,” notes Kroyer. “We work with Bill Godbold and Scooter [Brothers] as well as James Fry to determine just the right cam for the application. When we were one of the little guys, we received the same kind of specialized service we receive now. I can’t get a better camshaft or valve train product anywhere. Whether we need a specific camshaft built on a unique core or specialized cam lobe designed, they build us exactly what we need.”





















To call their needs “unique” is an understatement for the Kroyer race team. When we spoke to Kroyer he was not only building standard style Chevy, Dodge and Ford engines with both carburetion and fuel injection induction systems they were also building such odd pieces as four cylinder 2.3 liter ford engine opened up to 2.7 liter for another style of racing.

Concludes Kroyer, “Regardless of the application, engine choice or theoretical question, COMP Cams® has always offered up the expertise we needed to get the job done. I could not ask for a better company in terms of support and overall performance.”

Check out the COMP Cams® website!