John Schneider (racing driver)

Schneider came on the national scene in 1983 driving a Porsche 924 in the IMSA GT Championship GTU class for Performance Motorsports. He stayed in that car through 1985. In 1985, he also began racing a Pontiac Firebird in the Trans-Am Series. In 1986, he moved to Performance Motorsports' new Buick Somerset Trans-Am car and drove a Mazda rotary engine powered Argo in the 24 Hours of Daytona for Outlaw Racing. In 1987, he drove at Daytona in a Cosworth powered Tiga for Cosmik-Roy Baker Racing while continuing to drive the Somerset in Trans-Am. In 1988's 24 Hours of Daytona race, Schneider drove a Porsche powered Royale for Diman Racing and drove a number of other IMSA races in a Tiga for Essex Racing Services. He also raced part-time in Performance Motorsports' Chevrolet Corvette Trans-Am car.

Schneider was away from racing from the end of 1988 to 1995. When he returned, he drove a Stillen Nissan 300ZX to a number of strong finishes in the IMSA Supercar Championship. In 1996 he drove an Oldsmobile-powered Spice for Bobby Brown Motorsports in the World Sportscar Championship but had few good results.^[2] In 1997, Schneider signed onto an "all star" team to drive the Dyson Racing Riley & Scott Mk III-Cosworth in the 24 Hours of Daytona with co-drivers Rob Dyson, James Weaver, Butch Leitzinger, Andy Wallace, John Paul Jr., and Elliott Forbes-Robinson. The team won the race as many expected.^[3] After the win, Schneider again took a lengthy sabbatical from racing, but returned to the 24 at Daytona in 2002 to drive a Chevrolet powered Riley & Scott for TRV Motorsport but the car failed to finish.^[2] That was his last professional race.