Family tradition at the heart of sprintcar debutante

He might be only 17 years old but Parker Scott has a clear vision of what he wants to achieve.

The heavy vehicle apprentice, who has just finished his first year at Autocare, is in the early days of his sprintcar career and is looking forward to building his experience in his debut season.

“You don’t really get the opportunity to practice so it is learning while you are competing but I am happy I have already made an A Main so I am getting used to it,” Parker said.

Coming from a go kart background, a sport he started as a seven-year-old, where you compete over a few days with practice laps, qualifying and then racing, sprintcars has been a learning curve.

“You get a couple of hot laps and then you are into it,” Parker said.

It was somewhat inevitable that Parker would end up behind the wheel of a sprintcar – he is following in the footsteps of a family long association with speedway in this region and beyond.

His father Ashley Scott was a respected sprintcar competitor for many years, while his late grandfather Ray Scott drove sedans and then super modified, which were the pre-cursor to sprintcars.

Ray also was a long time supporter of the Borderline Speedway and sprintcar racing more broadly, providing financial support over many years, including being a major supporter when the Borderline last hosted the National Sprintcar Titles in 2018.

Parker’s late great grandfather Allan Scott was a founding member of the Borderline Speedway back in 1956 and was closely associated to the speedway through his ongoing generosity.

Borderline Speedway president Cary Jennings was thrilled to see the next generation of such an iconic speedway family taking to the track.

“It is so good to see Parker sitting inside the Vic55 sprintcar – the same car number his grandfather and father drove,” Jennings said.

Parker was certainly trackside for much of his father’s career and was well-versed in just how long his family had been involved in the sport.

“I used to watch dad race and I have always loved it so it was bound to happen I guess,” Parker said.

And it was become a wonderful father-son campaign as the duo work on the car during the week and then hit the road every weekend to head to an event.

Kickstarting his sprintcar career in October, Parker has already competed Echuca, Warrnambool, Avalon and was achieving his best results recently at Wangaratta before Mother Nature ended the night with Parker sitting second overall, and he was back in Warrnambool at the weekend.

Having not yet had a chance to compete at his home track, Parker was eagerly anticipating his chance to compete at the Borderline Speedway leg of the upcoming Sprintcars Speedweek on December 28, as well as the King’s Challenge and Easter Sprintcar Trail next year – the three most high profile sprintcar events hosted at the Glenburnie track.

Aside from his family connections, Parker has also been able to tap into the expertise of one of the sport’s greats – Brooke Tatnell.

The five-time Australian sprintcar champion and inaugural winner of the King’s Challenge has driven for Ray Scott in recent returns to Australia, after carving out a successful US career as well, and he has been on hand to give Parker some tips as he starts his own career on the dirt track.

“He (Tatnell) has been really helpful,” Parker said. “He takes me through what he is doing (in the car) and how he is doing it and he knows most of the tracks I will be driving at.”

Eventually heading to the United States, where sprintcars are huge and you can be a full time driver, is also on Parker’s hit list but he knows only a couple of months into his career, there is work to be done.

He keeps fit through mountain bike riding and running but loves the off track aspect of working on the car almost as much as driving.

Parker’s sprintcar journey is being sponsored by Triple S Services & Distribution and Gas N Go.