🏳️ Tommy Schlender

Tommy Schlender holds a Racer Rating of 1,734, placing him in the club racing band; this reflects a driver who competed consistently at the front of club-level fields rather than among professionals. His entire eight-season career, from 2006 to 2013, was spent in NASA competition, where he accumulated 37 wins and 50 podiums across 62 starts, finishing on average in second place. This is the record of a dominant club competitor: he won his class regularly and finished nearly every race on the podium.[1]

Schlender's head-to-head records reveal the nature of his success. Against his most frequent rival, Raybob Coleman, he won decisively, finishing ahead in 41 of 48 shared races. He similarly dominated Brad Densmore, Perry Herrmann, and Ken Rockwell, all drivers rated in the low-to-mid 900s or below. However, his record against stronger competitors tells a different story. Against Cody Powell, the 2012 NASA CMC champion rated at 2,652, Schlender finished ahead only 16 times in 26 races, losing that head-to-head 10 to 16. He also struggled against Joe Bogetich, a 2,481-rated driver, despite winning their head-to-head 24 to 2. This pattern shows Schlender as the clear master of the club field but outmatched when facing the genuinely strong drivers who also competed in NASA. His strongest final season came in 2013, when he won seven times in ten rounds, though he finished fourth overall in the championship. Schlender retired after that year, having made his mark as a very accomplished club racer within a limited competitive sphere.