HAPPY BIRTHDAY DORSEY SCHROEDER!

On May 31, 1986, rookie driver Dorsey Schroeder won his first IMSA race at Road Atlanta.

Schroeder's second win, coming just four races later at Lime Rock Park, Terry Lee Earwood did not at some point jump into the car, either. Nor was the co-driver his winning partner from the first race, Larry Huff.

By Dorsey Schroeder's third win, gone was the guy, Paul Tosi, with whom he scored a second win.

Confused? Evidently so was Dorsey Schroeder . . . or he just flat-out didn't like anyone, even if they did help him win.

Scored only 11 days shy of his first IMSA Firestone Firehawk Series win, Steve "Younga" DeBrecht was the next dude what shared driving duties with Schroeder. (Yes, yes, I know, the preceding "what" placement freaks English/journalism teachers everywhere, but Dorsey seems to better grasp a sentence, any sentence at all, if it contains "what.")

Indeed, it was in IMSA-rookie Schroeder's third Firestone Firehawk Series race, coincidentally Schroeder's third IMSA Firestone Firehawk series race (think about it) -- The Seagram's Cooler 24-Hour at Watkins Glen -- that he'd pair with first-win co-driver Huff; second-win co-driver Tosi, and, finally, no-win Earwood (at least with Schroeder).

Something was amiss; the four-driver team finished 15th and, as was the man that he is, Schroeder stepped up and took absolutely no responsibility, pointing the fickle finger of fate directly at Earwood. Or so it is said herein.

Accordingly, the two -- Schroeder and Earwood -- are besttest buddies to this very day or, maybe, yesterday. Nevertheless: “go figure.”

Schroeder, who for some oblique reason didn't exactly cop a whole bunch of IMSA Firestone Firehawk Series seat time in 1987, at least won (with "Younga" DeBrecht) in the only race Schroeder entered that year.

Having in 1987 blazed a trail unlike any scorched by anyone beforehand, Schroeder without a doubt was ready to roll when the first race of 1988 came 'round, jumping up and into an IMSA GTU Dodge Daytona ride, fielded by (what else?) "Full Time Racing."

Having qualified 66th, the team (Schroeder, Phil Currin and Kal Showket) completed but 62 of the eventual winner's 728 laps around the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course.

The team's No. 00 Dodge Daytona was officially retired as the result of a "spin" -- which evidently must've placed somewhere on the meter between "mind-blowing hallucinogenic" and "Depends" -- finished 71st of the 75 cars what started that year's SunBank 24 At Daytona.

It was later rumoured among two people that eventual race victors Martin Brundle, Raul Boesel and John Nielsen had to change their No. 60 Jaguar XJR-9's nosepiece that supposedly may have made short work of Full Time. (TWR team manager Tony Dowe, God love his pea-picking heart because Morris Nunn doesn't, is off in Australia the last time I heard and kinda hard to reach in the Aboriginal regions where he's gone to hide . . . or something like that).

Having redemption on his mind some six-weeks later at the famed 12-Hours of Sebring, Bruce MacInnes joined Schroeder and Full Time for a 25-lap-long romp around a 4.11-mile road course upon which Hans Joachim Stuck and Klaus Ludwig won about 11-hours later in Bruce Leven's "Bayside Disposal" (Q: "How's the trash business?" A: "Picking up.") Porsche 962-121.

Interestingly, of the 65 cars that, (oops) what started the race, Schroeder and MacInnes finished 61st. One car ahead in 60th place was the No. 60 Jag XJR-9 of, you guessed it, Martin Brundle, John Nielsen and Raul Boesel.

Just a coincidence or is it the foretelling of a Mayan Apocalyptic tragedy set for 21 December 2012? You be the judge.

The International Motor Sports Association was at the tail-end of its heyday and Schroeder, try as he may, darn sure didn't ride it as well as he might have or, even, could have.

In Sept. 1988, Schroeder scored a fourth professional win, his second Lime Rock Park win and the last of the 1988 season.

Yet, over the last four or five races of that '88 season a trend of sorts developed wherein Schroeder would, often did start at a field's rear only to capture a top-10 or top-5 finish.

One particular odd distinction arose to distinguish between Schroeder having a very good finish and a not-so-good finish: put Schroeder in a single-class race and he'd darn near wipe the floor.

Evidently somebody over at Jack Roush saw something in Schroeder that year. Who knows what was seen? Indeed, many still wonder to this day. Whatever it may have been, Schroeder suddenly was thrust into The Bigs of GT racing.

In the early 1980's Ford chose Roush and team to put the carmaker out front in Trans-Am racing.

Driving talent including the likes of Tom Gloy, Wally Dallenbach Jr., Willy T Ribbs and Scott Pruett (anyone see him lately; wonder what Pruett's doing nowadays?) quite capably ran Mercury Capri V8s and Merkur XR4Ti turbocharged 4-cyl., the former carrying Ford to manufacturer titles in 1984 and 1985, with Dallenbach taking driving honors in 1985 (though Willy T won more races and led the end-of-year money list, Dallenbach scored a higher average finish and won the driving title; followed with another in 1986).

After Pruett won the title in 1987, Hurley Haywood in an Audi Quattro took it away in 1988.

1989 was a hallmark year for Ford, and it was intending to send out a lot of 'em, too. But plainly, it needed a superdriver to step from the ranks and found it in an unlikely source: a four-race winner coming from what many saw as a bush-league, junior-league series.

Yet, Dorsey Schroeder drove his Roush Mustang as though he was being chased -- but by “what: isn’t immediately obvious because many people even today will say it was and still is "inner demons" that pushed Schroeder to car-racing's pinnacle and alternately gashed his leg on a dock as recently as 2012.

Whatever, ahem, "drove" certainly succeeded.

After IMSA GT tune-up races in the SunBank 24 At Daytona and Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring, in which Schroder and Dallenbach were joined by NASCAR star Mark Martin in Daytona for a 2nd-place finish and scored a GT-class win in the second, Schroeder opened his first-ever SCCA campaign with a sixth at Long Beach, a second at Sears Point (Sonoma; Infineon) and then he started rolling, er, actually, "steam-rolling" might be more appropriate.

One at times wonders if race car drivers remember their "first," or perhaps even a "second first" or, going all the way in Schroeder's case, a "fifth first."

(Confused? You should take a look within my head.)

However, just in case Dorsey has gotten too damn old as of today, here it is: 3 hours, 16 minutes and 220 miles north of Austin, Texas, one will find the locale of Schroeder's first Trans-Am win: Addison Airport.

"Addison Airport!?"

Let's just call it "The First Circuit Of The Americas."

Note to Bob Stallings, Terry Wilkins and Link; can't omit Link: No, guys, this is not an attempt to deride your "hood." One supposes you, too, could be racing on the track that Dorsey made famous, such as it is, but Addison didn't make the SCCA's race calendar the following year nor, indeed, any race series' subsequent calendar yet seen by yours truly. In short: No worries, Austin!

Thirty-five cars started in the Pontiac (ask Richard Petty) Grand Prix of Dallas, among the drivers of which were Lyn St. James (5th); Scott Sharp (24th); and, even R.J. Valentine (15th)!

For the SCCA Trans-Am's following event in the street's of Detroit, Schroeder would score his first big-time pole!

In the wake of the above point and presuming at least some confusion may have arisen in the minds of some readers (like I said, you should see it in here), Dorsey hadn't scored even a single, lousy pole in the Firestone Firehawk Series.

After a not-too-shabby 4th-place at Detroit and a 38th at Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport (blamed on a "bad rear end"; Dorsey at least started on the outside pole), the 36-year-old boy from Kirkwood, Mo., flat-out galloped in his Roush Ford Mustang!

In the nine, count 'em, nine following races on the 1989 SCCA Trans-Am calendar, Schroeder didn't start OR finish outside of the top-10 (keep calm, Dorsey, keep calm. This deserves a big roll-out).

Indeed, at the end of those nine remaining 1989 Trans-Am races, Dorsey didn't once start or finish a race outside of the top-5.

Yep, in the Trans-Am's nine remaining 1989 races, Dorsey failed just one time to finish outside of the top-3 -- a 4th-place at Heartland Park.

The perfectionist car builder and team owner, Jack Roush, had finally found his driving counterpart!

Note that unlike some series of late wherein championships were won with three, maybe four steady entrants -- two sometimes owned by the same guy -- Dorsey's competition wasn't even close to lightweight.

In the season's final race --traditionally among the least contested regardless of series -- on St. Petersburg, Florida's 2-mile street course, Dorsey faced the likes of the aforementioned St. James, Sharp, Tommy Kendall, Paul Gentilozzi and Irv Hoerr, who finished first to Dorsey's third.

Indeed, the race having the fewest starters, 27, in the 1989 Trans-Am season came in the Stroh's Light Grand Prix at the 3-mile Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway, where Dorsey was in the second of his nine-race streak and at the end of which he finished second, having faced talented drivers like Sharp, St. James, Hoerr (first place), Kendall, Bob Sobey, The Two Pauls - Newman and Gentilozzi - and Jim Derhaag.

Having no fear or, perhaps in his case, "sense," Dorsey would win the season's two most-contested races at Mid-Ohio and Road America, where 38 and 37 respective starters tried and failed to dislodge Dorsey from the topmost point on the race podium. Even Ron Fellows, third in a Roush Ford Mustang, gave it a shot at Road America.

It was a heckuva run; talk about being "in a zone," Schroeder was "there."

Indeed, especially given the competition, Dorsey Schroeder's 1989 season was among the best ever compiled by any driver, anywhere, anytime.

Human growth hormone?

Deer antler spray?

Failed apocalyptic signal?

Who knows; who cares?

It was cool.

The most incredible part of the Dorsey Schroeder story?

He today celebrates the conclusion of his 60th year and Dorsey wants to go racing one more time!

I'm in!

Happy Birthday, Dorsey!

Later,

DC