Scott’s journey from Torquay go-karts to world champion race cars

LIFE was relatively simple at first for Scott Andrews.

He was raised in your typical Surf Coast family – his dad a mechanic and car enthusiast, his mum a school teacher.

Now he’s living in Miami, Florida, winning top races and being flown around the US and Europe for racing.

His Rolex is engraved with “Daytona 24 winner” and the 30-year-old is stoked by this recent prize and thrilled to come first in the prestigious race.

But he’s still a Surf Coaster at heart, and when he’s not putting the pedal to the metal, it’s clear his feet are firmly planted on the ground.

“Going motor racing was never really something that was going to be possible without winning the lottery or extreme potluck,” Scott Andrews tells the Times from Houston, where he is relaxing after winning his class in the prestigious Rolex 24 At DAYTONA race.

Scott raced for the Riley Motorsport – Robinson Racing team and took out the LMP3 category in a Ligier JS P320-Nissan. The team of three drivers completed 757 laps over the 24 hours to take out the win in what was Scott’s debut at the event.

After winning Daytona, a mate flew them in his private jet to a lake house in Austin, Texas, where they’ve been relaxing and recovering since.

He’s living the life of a racing super star. But according to his father, Paul Andrews, who runs Andrews Automotive in Torquay, his beginnings were humble.

“We bought an old go-kart, went out, did the father-and-son thing for a few years,” Paul said.

Back then, he says, you could still do pretty well with old equipment, time and effort.

Throughout his childhood, Scott showed immense talent. When he turned 18, Paul entered him in the Commodore Cup, a car race series named after the Holden Commodore car all participants must drive.

Scott did well, but realised it wasn’t going to be a stepping stone to bigger races.

Paul reached out to a friend, Sean Scott, who was a previous Formula Ford team owner, a Formula 1-style development race car.

Sean had two Formula Ford race cars, so they set up an agreement where Paul would look after the cars and Sean would coach and do the engineering.

“We got to Winton and in one practice session Scott was on the pole lap time of the year before,” Paul said.

Sean, who trained the likes of Australian racing legend Lee Holdsworth, turned to Paul and said “The kid’s got natural talent”.

From there, things just took off.

Last month’s Daytona 24 Hours — a race that literally goes for 24 hours with a team of interchanging drivers — was Scott’s first 24-hour event.

“It’s pretty much a bucket list race,” Scott said, adding that to win to race on debut was his biggest career win to date.

“It’s almost a feeling of relief when you win something like that because you put so much work into it.

“In motor sport, the smallest little thing needs to happen for your whole race to crumble.

“A lot of the time I would be the underdog, or our team would be the underdog, but this time we were not.”

Scott said he couldn’t have done it without his dad, his mates and a lot of luck.