Kruse Motorsport

**Kruse Motorsport** is a racing team that competes in Formula A, competing under a WMA German team license, they are known as one of the front runners of the grid since the inception of the Formula A Championship; officially known as **Motech Kruse Motorsport** due to their multi-million sponsorship with telecommunications company Motech. Kruse has managed a rather successful campaign in it's debut in 2023, despite losing out of the championship to Italian rivals; Scuderia Barzetti, the team has managed to finish 2nd in the Constructors Championship with both teams losing out of the Driver's Championship to BNT Polaris Motorsport driver; Floris Van Velzen. Kruse still looks to remain a front runner for next season with one of the biggest budgets on the grid and a strong driver pairing, they look for a monumental impact for 2024.

## **History**

Kruse was founded in the early 1950s, serving as a producer of industrial goods for the resurging West German economy after World War II. They would eventually diversify into the auto industry, creating engines for well-known German automakers at the time. Stefan Bach, leader of the company would eventually pivot the company into producing automobiles as their main source of industry, however, to this day they still produce various manufactured goods. Their first car would be the Kruse 120, a car that would become renowned for its smooth ride and competitive price point. Although not fast, it was popular within the German domestic market and overseas. Diversifying into other segments of the economy market, the cars would become popular amongst tuners and racing teams for their cheap price point and reliability, as well as their ease of modification. The Kruse 130E, boasting a 140 HP 4-cylinder turbocharged engine would win the British Compact Car Cup 4 times in a row from 1958 to 1962, as well as the car proving itself to be integral to smaller saloon and touring car series across Europe. Kruse would also expand into the luxury market but prove to be outclassed by cars with more prestige such as Barzetti and Valentina from the Italian markets.

### Entry Into Open Wheel Racing

In the middle years of the GPWC, spanning from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, Kruse would become one of the most successful outfits in the series. Entering some of the most revolutionary cars with some of the most legendary drivers in the history of the series would be a combination that would prove unstoppable, allowing the German outfit to win 5 titles straight from 1959 to 1964. They would also innovate greatly with engine technology, producing reliable and fast cars that many other teams could not compete with. Slowly but surely, their technological gap would whittle away as other teams including the new Silver Leaf team, which would create radical aerodynamic concepts, and the Austrian SAMB team, which would bring unprecedented amounts of manufacturer backing to the series, would take chunks out of their dominance. The team would still be competitive at the front of the series, managing titles in 1966, 1967, and 1969, but after 1969 the team would not win another title, along with star driver Jose Nunes Costa, who brought them to 6 out of their 9 championships leaving at the end of the season. Smaller privateer entries would use their engines, however, such as McKenzie, which entered a brief, yet successful technological alliance with them, bringing them success in 1973, netting them their first and only championship in the GPWC. Despite this, the factory team would slowly fall further to the back of the grid, leaving in 1976, citing costs as the main issue with staying afloat, as the company was hemorrhaging money. Soon, Kruse would declare bankruptcy in 1978 and would leave racing altogether outside of customer outfits.

### Bailout and Resurgence

Kruse would be bailed out by the German government and given many subsidized to not injure such a massive player in the economy. Kruse would enter a financial alliance with multiple other German manufacturing companies, forming the Deutsche Herstellung Allianz (DHA). (Kruse would eventually leave the organization in 2008 amidst the Great Recession.) With Kruse now with more stable funding, they would begin regaining their foothold in the automotive industry, and their racing programs would eventually return. They would not return to top-level open wheel racing until 1988 when they would reunite with McKenzie to create a long-running deal to supply them engines. They would achieve good results, achieving multiple constructor's championships. They would also supply Weston in their best era in IFS history, achieving their first and only championship powered by a Kruse engine. Alongside their engine programs in IFS, they would also gain fame in touring cars once again, this time in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Rennsport Serie (DTRS) where they would become the dominant manufacturer over rivals SAMB and Braun, winning the championship 5 times in a row with factory and customer efforts, and bringing light to many of the greatest touring car drivers of all time. They would also expand into the GSC, winning the historic 24 Hours of Le Mans with one of the most dominant Group C cars of all time, partnering with historic GPWC team Meier Motorsport to create the Kruse-Meier C1989, which won every race in the GSC in 1990 but one race, where both cars ran into reliability issues midway through.

### Continued Motorsport Dominance

The German make would continue to dominate the Group C formula until its death due to rising costs in 1995 with new prototype regulations arriving in their place. During this time, Kruse would make a partnership with British manufacturing company Walker and formed Walker Engineering. Under this name, they would begin creating engines for Team Briscoe in AOWR (American Open Wheel Racing, the current sanctioning body of American Formula Racing), and expand to further customer operations. They would begin to dominate the series by creating immensely powerful engines and win marquee races such as the Indianapolis 500 repeatedly with teams such as Briscoe, but also Sullivan Racing and Jones/Miller Racing. In 1994, in collaboration with Team Briscoe, they would secretly create an engine known as the IFA1094, an engine developed solely for the Indianapolis 500. The engine would prove to be so dominant during the race that new regulations would have to be implemented to make sure that a project designed as such could never exist again.
As the years progressed, Kruse would increase their stake in Walker until they eventually bought out the company, pulling out of AOWR and redirecting their efforts into IFS. After backing out in 1995 when McKenzie switched to running Louvet engines, they would join up with various teams, including EuroSilva, Weston, and others. While multiple teams they supplied would run at the higher end of the field, none found great success. Kruse would come back to top-level endurance racing in 1996 to run in the new WSP (World Sports Prototype) Class, achieving little success. At Le Mans, the car proved fast, however unreliable, with both cars failing to finish in the first 2 hours of the race. The car would prove unsuccessful with customers due to extreme costs. As the 2000s approached, Kruse’s dominance of the DTRS would come to an end, with parity between the various manufacturers reaching a boiling point and the series entered a golden age with new regulations allowing for more aerodynamic freedom, and the formula would create silhouette-based cars, with freedom taken for homologation. No team would run Kruse engines in IFS by 2004, as teams cited many reasons for choosing other engine manufacturers. Barzetti would become the dominant engine manufacturer, leading an unstoppable era of dominance.

### Return to IFS

Kruse would enter IFS once again with Polaris, with huge amounts of factory backing supporting the effort. In 2009, 1 year after the team’s inception, Polaris would immediately prove to be a front-running team, signing many top staff and designers to create a super team, loaded full of stars from across the racing world. Although Polaris would be incredibly quick, it would not be enough for them to win any drivers’ or constructors’ championships, as they would falter to Tsukuda, SAMB, Barzetti, and McKenzie, who had more experience, more consistency, and better organization. The fledgling team would slowly have more form as time went on, establishing proper title-contending form in the 2010s. The team would continue to get better after each season, narrowly losing out on the title in 2017 in one of the closest seasons in IFS history to Jordan Smith. After a solid 2018, they would take the title 3 years in a row with Leo Kotowicz and Jean-Marc Martin, where they would leave after 2021, citing Kruse's interest in becoming a factory effort and rising costs as main concerns.

### Re-Entry into Formula A

Kruse would make the executive decision to enter Formula A with a full factory effort in 2023, signing drivers Felix Martens and Kalle Rantanen for the start of the season. They had a successful first season, taking multiple wins and finishing 2nd in the constructors behind Barzetti.