Dan Kruger, the most successful ex-pat Canadian roadracer of his generation, continues to rack up victories in the US. He’s just wrapped up his 2023 season with WERA, and once again he’s got championship hardware. He’s won both the WERA’s Superstock and Superbike titles this year, a repeat from 2022 in both categories. He also won the title in his class in the N2/WERA Endurance Championship, going undefeated in 2023 in that series.
Impressive, but it was no easy walk in the park for Kruger. While the roadracing tracks of the US might not have the same dangers as the street circuit stuff he focused on in years gone by, Kruger is still patched together from many crashes over the years, and had to deal with injuries again this year. A crash at Road Atlanta echoed his crack-up there from the year before, but he was able to push through that difficulty and still come home with a trunkload of hardware.
Kruger raced a Kawasaki ZX-10R this season, and while those machines are very much made to race, he credits his team with his success, as they worked through mechanical and electrical issues to keep him on top (see the PR below).
What’s next for Kruger? In years past, he often did the track stuff in order to stay sharp and fund his real interest, street circuit racing. But he’s not signed up for the Macau GP this year, and he’s seen a lot of success in the States over the past two season. Chances are that he’s in no hurry to change things up by returning to the North West 200 or some other event like that.
Kruger’s PR follows:
Press release
October 19-22, 2023, AMA/WERA Grand National Final-Leeds, Alabama
24 wins and 38 podiums later, Canadian Dan Kruger and his Nature Power Kawasaki Superbike Team clinched back-to-back AMA/WERA National Championships for 2023. “We had a challenging weekend with clutch issues and various electronic gremlins. Thankfully, Pirelli tyres were definitely the tyres to be on, and we made up for the bike issues by having amazing tyres under us. I am really happy our team has backed up our 2022 Double Championship by again winning both premier National Championships with AMA/WERA in 2023. We traveled all over the Country to win these Championships and having a supportive wife/children made it much easier and definitely more enjoyable.
We also won our class in the National Endurance Championship and remain unbeaten in 2023 with a big help from my Teammate Jason Waters. We feel like we brought some excitement to the N2/WERA Endurance Championship and had a blast doing it.
This past weekend wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Tyler, Skip, and fill-in rider Jesse Ruehling. A special thank you to Mike from KWS and Thermosman (Suspension guru) for helping the team this past weekend as well! My regular crew chief was overseas and missed the event which added pressure overall to the weekend.
All of our sponsors really stepped up in 2023 and we wouldn’t be celebrating these Championships without their continued support. Pirelli, RK, EBC, Motul, Mototron, KYT, Ktech, Dainese, Hindle Kinetik, HEL, SK Support, Nature Power, and Kawasaki.
Time to prepare for 2024 testing and we will be making an announcement in December about some big plans regarding racing for 2024! Stay tuned and thanks for following, liking, and commenting at www.facebook.com/dankrugerracingteam . We appreciate all the support and love reading all your positive comments.
