For Dorsey Schroeder, Lime Rock Park is more than just another circuit from his racing career that included championships in Trans Am and IMSA, and appearances in NASCAR and IROC.

 

During Historic Festival 44, Schroeder returned to The Park as an Honored Guest and Head Steward for VSCCA, joining a celebration of the cars and competitors that helped define some of the most memorable eras in American road racing.

 

But, one day at Lime Rock stands above the rest for Schroeder. On September 9, 1988, he competed in three races over the course of a single day, earning a win, an overall podium and, ultimately, the attention that would help launch the next chapter of his career.

 

Here, in his own words, Schroeder tells the story of the day at Lime Rock Park that changed everything:

 

My biggest day in racing was at Lime Rock, back on September 9 in 1988.

 

We had a three-hour Firestone Firehawk that started at 8 a.m. and ran until 11. I co-drove with Jeremy Dale, and we ended up winning.

 

Before lunch came the Camel GTU race, a one-hour race. I drove in Kal Showkett’s Dodge, a rear-drive car. I lapped the field on that one. Tommy [Kendall] was the last car I lapped, and he ended up second in a Chevy Beretta.

 

While I was winning that race, Kal Showkett went to Mark Raffauf and some of the IMSA guys, and said, “Since you don’t have a big field of GTO cars, what if we ran our GTU cars with the GTO cars. Unchanged, we’ll just take it there and run from where we start. They needed a good car count, so they said they didn’t see reason anything anybody could complain about.

 

So, I started the GTO race quite a way back. I’m racing against guys like Jack Baldwin in the Skoal Bandit car; Scott Pruett and Pete Halsmer were in turbocharged Merkurs; Dennis Aase and Willy T. Ribbs were running the turbocharged Toyotas; and Wally Dallenbach and Greg Pickett in the Protofab Corvettes. I started in the back somewhere.

 

What they didn’t realize was that because of the fuel mileage of our little four-cylinder, I already had a two-lap advantage, because when you pit here at Lime Rock, you lose one lap because we’re going so fast around here.

 

So, when they all stopped, I was leading the race overall. Then I stopped for fuel, but when they stopped for their second fuel stop, I was leading it again. So at the end, I ended up with a third-place finish in GTO, behind Wally Dallenbach in a Corvette and Ribbs in a Toyota.

 

I’ll tell you how classy Cal Showkett was. He said before that GTO race since I was going to be driving all day, if you’re up for this, I’ll give you the money – anything the car wins, you can have all of it, not the usual percentage. It’s all yours.

 

Then I also won the Norelco Cup three times that day, an award they had back then voted by the press for the best drive of the day. That was $1,000 bucks, and that ticked Scott Pruett off, he didn’t want to come up to the podium. (Dorsey chuckles) Then I came in third and I took that money. So, I actually raced from 8 o’clock in the morning until 5 o’clock at night in three cars by Dodge.

 

But that’s not all. That day led to my getting getting the ride with Jack Roush, when they were doing the “Gong Show.’ When they were looking for candidates for their cars, they picked the ones that were normal, and then they asked the mechanics if there was anybody who’s not on this list – or anybody on it that they wanted off.

 

They said they didn’t want anybody off, but they want that kid that whupped our butts on the list. We should look at him.

 

So, I got a call the day I got back from that test in Sebring to my home in Missouri. My wife said, ‘A guy named Lee White from Roach Racing.’ I said, ‘Are you sure it’s not Roush,’ and she said, ‘could be.’ I called that number and it was Lee, and he said, “Can you get back down to Sebring?’

 

So, I ended up getting the ride. I replaced Scott Pruett, who went on to IndyCar, and that led all the way to my winning the Trans-Am rookie of the year and the championship, IMSA championship and rookie of the year, and then NASCAR and IROC.

 

So that one day at Lime Rock really opened up my career.