Kruger Motorsports On Willowbend Blvd.

[Highrise Tower]

I'm trying to find out more information about the old automotive performance shop on Willowbend Blvd. near Stella Link.  That area of South Main had a lot of oval-shaped tracks.  I wonder if one of the race tracks belonged to Kruger Motorsports? A car racing shop would need a small track for customers and self enjoyment, no? This would have been in the 1960s and 1970s.

I assume the business was registered with the state.  I cannot find anything online about the company. Maybe the legal registered name was different?

HAIF member @LarryDallasmentioned this in another neighborhood thread a decade ago:

Stella Link between W. Belfort and Willowbend has very clean and well maintained light office buildings and warehouses. In fact, Al's Formal opened a building there a few years ago. The warehouses that were there on Willowbend between Stella Link and the rail tracks to the west have remained the same. There was also a plant nursey that was located on Willowbend that closed last year. The land has been turned into a baseball field that is maintained to perfection. Next to the rail tracks on Willowbend there used to be Kruger Motorsports (closed in 2000 and now demolished) and a small used car lot (closed shortly after Kruger....building stands abandoned).

Anyone know more info about Kruger? They looked to me like they were struggling to pay rent towards the end cause they hardly had any customers and it looked run down. Had they been there since the 50s or 60s? Was it the place to go to get custom performance work done on your car in SW Houston?

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There were actually two oval tracks at Willowbend and Craighead.  They spanned a decade apart.  Maybe the new track was just an unearthed version of the old? The old race track was overgrown with grass and they just cleared the grass to discover the old track?

Timeline:

1962 the track appeared. 

1966 the track disappeared. 

1973 the track reappeared.

1976 the track was disappearing.

1981 - present day 2023 the track has completely disappeared and commercial development built over.

In the 1962 image below.  Looks like you can see a small road leading to the oval track from Craighead Drive. I'm not sure if Kruger Motorsports was active in the neighborhood at that time.  If the performance automotive shop was in business, it would be logical that the track belonged to them.