September 26th, 2007
The past two races have not gone so well for John and I. At Three Rivers up in canada, John got hit from behind in the opening laps of the race, which resulted in having to go behind the was to do repairs. The crew did a fantastic job fixing the car and getting it back on the track.
This past race took place at Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City. We tested here a month ago and it payed off due to the fact this track is 4.5miles long with nearly 25 turns. We were fighting to find a good set-up as the car was rather loose coming out of the corners. We worked hard in practice sessions trying to fine tune the car to work better and better. John had trouble getting used to the set-up we were running and struggled in qualifying. John, starting 30th, got hit early by another car, yet managed to resume on track and deliver the car to me on the lead lap. Once I got in the car I slowly worked my way though the pack. However, this progression was suddenly halted when (once up to 14th position) a mustang who I had been racing with nose to tail spun out and came right across the track. To avoid head on contact with the mustang I braked; however, the car directly behind me did not realized what was going on and got into the back of me pushing me forward into the mustang. The damage was enough to prevent me from continuing in the race… The next event is the 6 hours of VIR. Both John and I have never been to VIR before but look forward to learning a new track.
-scott
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July 25th, 2007
This past weekend John and I raced at the hot and humid barber motor sports park in Alabama. Both John and I had never been on this track before which made us have a small disadvantage. However, we learned the track quickly and set lap times in many of the practice sessions in the top 10. John qualified the car 32nd out of the almost 40 cars entered in the race. Sunday morning at 8:30AM the race started. Although the race was early in the morning it was nice to not have to race in the heat of the day. John picked up many positions and handed the car over to me around the 25th position. However, early in the race john reported that 4th gear was going bad and that he sometimes had trouble getting it into gear. Once I got in 4th gear worked for a handful of laps but then it eventually totally went out. This made me have to upshift directly from 3rd to 5th gear. Because of this I was a sitting duck on some of the early race re-starts loosing 1 or 2 positions. On top of not having a 4th gear the car also had an electrical issue. Every other lap or so the car would turn off which meant I lost valuable seconds as I tried to re-start the car. I managed to get the car as high at 8th before having to come in and pit for gas. When the race was over I was just glad the car finished and that we did not have to retire the car early. At the end of the day we finished a disappointing 17th, although with all the bad luck we had it was a alright finish.
-scott
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July 10th, 2007
This past weekend we raced at one of North America’s premier race tracks, Watkins glen. We made many changes to the car from the time we rolled the car off the trailer to the time of the race.
John qualified the car in 22nd position. In the race he held off other drivers from behind to hand the car over to me in the same position he qualified it. I came out on track 29th after the driver change and picked up 10 positions in 5 laps. However, contact from behind by another competitor resulted in dropping back to 30th position. At this time we decided to change our pit strategy. A yellow flag came out and instead of pitting early in the yellow and gaining track position we pitted very late in order to save gas and be able to make it to the end of the race with out pitting again. However, the end of the race was plagued with yellow flags which helped many of the other cars that might have needed to pit again for gas. I pitted on lap 37 from 8th position and returned on track in P 29. By one of the first late race yellows I worked my way back up to 14th. On the late race restarts I picked off a couple cars ending up 11th.
The next race is at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama and the Porsche hopefully will have an advantage over the heavy mustangs….
-scott
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June 26th, 2007
This past weekend my team mate and I were racing at Mid Ohio. The car rolled off the truck with already a good set-up on it. The first session on Thursday was more for my team mate and I re-learning the track than it was for working on set-up.
We made a minor spring change for the second session. Through out the whole weekend we were trying to get more and more rear grip so that in the race we would not overheat the rear tires. After some minor adjustments in pit lane I felt the car was working pretty well.
After this second session I reviewed my data and compared my data with teammate Andy Lally’s. With some things in mind to improve my lap times and new tires I thought for sure we would be in the top 5 or so at the end of the session. However, we ended up on the very top of the timing charts with a lap time of 1:33.6.
Friday I did not get on the track much. My teammate qualified the car ending up P32. We had trouble getting the car’s handling to suit my co-drivers driving style and worked on balancing the car so that he would be more comfortable driving it in the race.
Saturday was the big day. Coming into the race I knew we had a good race car. John handed the car over to me once again without a scratch. Through out the race I found my self in a big pack of cars nose to tail. Since everyone was so close to each other it actually made it very hard to make a pass. However, over the race the #40 car got by a total of 22 cars and finished a strong 10th.
Lots of family and friends came out to watch my race this past weekend. I would like to thank them for coming and hope that they had a great time. I finally have a weekend off after many days on the road. Our next race is in upstate New York at Watkins Glen.
-scott
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June 16th, 2007
This weekend My team mate and I took on one of the most difficult tracks in North America. During the Friday practice sessions we tried many of different set up’s.
By the end of the day we had a pretty good car. All the crews hard work at changing set-ups back and forth ( changing the springs from soft springs to stiff and back to soft) paid off and in the Saturday morning practice I managed to do a 1:30.5 lap time which placed me in the top three before handing the car over to my teammate john.
Through out the whole weekend we were trying to find rear grip. Even though the car was fast in morning practice (when the track temp was cool ) we decided to make some changes so that the car was strong in the race.
Come race time john delivered the car to me once again perfect ( which is saying a lot at a track as tricky as Mosport ). When I got in the car I quickly realized the car was rather tail happy. The car was a real handful to drive and coming in the pits to make a change was not an option. The team made a good call and did what they could by adjusting tire pressures on my next set of tires. The #40 car finished a strong 15th over all with many good battles in the race.
This coming weekend is the Mid Ohio event. John and I have both raced at Mid Ohio and I feel the porches’ will have an edge over the high horsepower mustangs there.
-scott
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May 29th, 2007
After a tough start this weekend, and missing more than half the on track sessions, the #40 car ran perfectly come race time.
I got a good start in the race as the green flag dropped, moving from 7th to 5th by the end of the first lap. I knew I was faster than the guys ahead of me and took an easy the first half hour of the race. The top 3 cars were in a real battle and I let them bang it out. From fifth I managed to gain 2 positions just from two cars ahead of me making contact and thus, leaving the door open for me to sneak by both of them.
By the time I got into second place the leader had a rather large lead on the rest of the field. Chasing him down for 15+ laps I ran the fastest laps I had run all weekend ( also setting the fastest laps of the race at the time)
A yellow flag came out and I took over the lead. After Leading for 21 laps; however, a stop and go penalty and a flat tire took the #40 car out of the top 10.
At this time John got in the car and brought the car home in a solid 20th.
The race will be aired on Speed Channel June 10th at 3pm Eastern time.
I am now off to a Porsche club race this coming weekend at Wakens Glen. And then a nice weekend off before going north to Canada.
-scott
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May 26th, 2007
Hello,
With a new motor put in the car we had high hopes for the weekend.
Unfortunately, the high hopes were let down when the motor would not start before the Friday morning practice. The #40 Porsche did not do more than 1 lap in both of the Friday practice sessions. The team worked real had searching for the problem and trying anything to get the car working.
We thought we had a fix for the motor issue in time for the Saturday morning practice. My team mate get his first laps in the car getting quicker and quicker as the session went on. However, When i got in the car i noticed smoke behind me and did not want to risk hurting the motor, so I brought the car in to the garage.
For qualifying we decided to change it up. Instead of John qualifying the car and starting the race, we decided I would. With only 1 lap on the track I was questioning how well the qualifying would go. With only 15 min to learn the track and get a feel for the set-up on the car, I pushed hard to do a lap time of 59.5 good enough for a solid 7th place.
The race is Monday morning (starting at 10 AM and ending at 12:30) and is also televised to be aird in a couple weeks.
The weekend is turning around and things are looking good again.
-scott
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May 23rd, 2007
hello,
The #40 car had its highs and lows this past weekend at Laguna. The car ran strong all weekend ending many of the practices in the top 10.
John Bibbo (co-driver) qualified the car 27th and in the race quickly passed 7 cars. However, while running a strong 20th, John was pushed off the track by another competitor. When returning to the racing surface the car hit a curb which resulted in damaging an oil line. John brought the car back to the pits and the repair was not fixable in time to get the car back out on the track.
I look forward to LimeRock this next weekend. I raced here last year with formula bmw and feel that this track favors porsches. Expect to see the #40 porsche running up front the whole weekend.
-scott
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May 16th, 2007
Hey,
Tomorrow I leave for Laguna Seca. For this race I will not be needing to fly instead just a short drive down the coast.
The first Practice starts Friday, warm-up and qualifying on Saturday, and the 2 1/2 hr race begins Sunday morning. I will once again post updates at the end of the days on how they went.
John (my co- driver) and I both have experience on this track. Some of my experience at this track includes my first ever race win (in a car) in a Skip Barber Formula Dodge.
-scott
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April 22nd, 2007
My team-mate John Bibbo did a great job handing over to me a scratch less car (which was not easy at this race). Unfortunately during our driver change we went a lap down to the field. I knew I had a long race ahead of me and tried to play it smart. Setting very quick constant lap times and using every last drop of gas in the tank helped me slowly gain back some of the lost track position.
At a track so narrow and slow, passing was tough. Because of this there was a large amount of car to car contact.
Unfortunately, the officials mistook my car for being involved in an incident and because of this I was forced to serve a stop and go penalty. As frustrating as it was, knowing that I was innocent, I kept a cool head to finish 13th overall.
All in all the #40 TRG 997 of John Bibbo and Scott Schroeder had a frustrating yet successful weekend.
The whole TRG crew did a great job giving me a good car that was fast even in the closing laps of the race.
I had some friends and family come from far to watch this race and I would like to thank them for coming.
I look forward to the next race at Laguna, John Bibbo and I are both very strong there and we expect to do well.
-scott
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