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Having been interested in historic motor racing all his life, in 2014 Matt Scott decided it was time to get behind the wheel and start racing historic Formula Vees
A need for
speed
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Matt Scott, general manager of AGCSA Bronze Partner Simplot Partners, likes to live life in the fast lane.
Scott’s first competitive race was at the Winton Festival of Speed in 2015
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have always had a passion for vintage and classic cars, especially English cars, and started collecting and restoring them at a young age. My first car was a 1966 MGB which I bought when I was just 17. I thought I was pretty cool at the time, that was until I blew up the engine a week before I got my licence! At the time I was doing up a Mini Cooper to race, although plans quickly changed when I needed a car, so I got it road registered and reluctantly put my budding racing career on hold (from memory the rego cost more than the car was worth!) Fast forward a number of years and by now I was a regular attendee at the Phillip Island Classic (an historic car racing event). I would take one of my classic cars down to display trackside and watch all the action. I was always a big fan of open wheel racing, especially the likes of drivers Jim Clark and Bruce McLaren in the early and mid-1960s Formula One cars as well as the late 1980s/early 1990s, in particular Ayrton Senna. It was at the Phillip Island Classic in 2014 that I met a driver who raced historic Formula Vee and, well, let’s just say it didn’t take much to be talked into it. Contacting the president of the Historic Formula Vee Association in NSW, he knew a good car that was for sale. I didn’t know much about them then so took his advice and bought it, as you do. The car was a 1984 Elfin NG Formula Vee with racing history and had been slightly modified for hill climbs and sprint events. Historic racing requires all cars to have racing ‘history’ in the period (pre-1985 for this category) and to be represented as they were raced in the day. Historic Formula Vee also requires a sealed engine and sealed gear box as well as control tyres, so it’s very close racing and all up to driver skill (or lack of in some cases). I got the car back home to Melbourne and had to strip it down and rebuild to original specs. Once
AUSTRALIAN TURFGRASS MANAGEMENT 19.4
that was complete it was time to get a CAMS (the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport) Certificate of Description. All historic race cars are required to provide evidence that they were indeed raced in the period they claim to have, with CAMS issuing you a certificate indicating this. All up it took about six months to get together the necessary documentation which included getting photos and race programmes from 1984 off the original owner in Queensland who was very helpful. My first event was Historic Sandown back in 2014. The first few track meetings I took part in were called ‘regularity’. This isn’t racing against other cars, rather you are on the track together with all types of cars. You nominate a time which you can do fairly consistently and try to keep as close to this time as possible. Of course I just tried to go as fast as possible… My first proper race was at the Winton Festival of Speed in 2015 where I started and finished at the back of the field. There were four other Formula Vees on the track and I started around six seconds off the pace but ended up around three seconds off by the end. It was a memorable day all round and I had my father Denis and son Jonathan as part of my pit crew. Since then I have raced at Phillip Island, Sandown, Winton, Sydney Motorsport Park, Wakefield Park (NSW) and Mallala (SA). I have come a long way since those early forays and came second in class at Mallala this year and was coming first at Sandown before I hit the car in front of me on the last corner and put us both into the tyre wall! To say that I’m having a lot of fun in Historic Formula Vee would be an understatement. It is a great class to compete in with wheel-to-wheel racing against a great group of people. If anyone is interested, I have a YouTube channel and post most of my race videos on that – simply search for ‘Matt Scott historic Formula Vee’.