Tyler Scott - MotoAmerica Supersport Racer

Dale Spangler:

Welcome to Pit Pass Moto, the show that brings you deep dive interviews with the motorcycle industry insiders and racers that make the sport move. I'm host Dale Spangler, and this week we have MotoAmerica Supersport racer for the Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki team, Tyler Scott.

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Let's get started. Tyler Scott, we'd like to welcome you back to Pit Pass Moto, how are things going for you? I imagine it's going to be one of those busy weeks leading up to your true opening round for MotoAmerica at Road Atlanta. How's it going today?

Tyler Scott:

It's going great. I'm glad to be back on the podcast here with you guys. And yeah, this morning I actually just flew down to Florida. But yeah, we're down here hopefully going to get some training in before we drive to the track, but I'm super excited for the first points race of the season after our unfortunate electrical in Daytona. So, I'm ready to go.

Dale Spangler:

That was actually going to be one of my questions because I saw you lined up and you were really in the hunt. I think you qualified what, third for the Daytona 200?

Tyler Scott:

Yeah.

Dale Spangler:

And then, yeah, I guess like some electrical gremlins or something just kind of took you out eventually, huh?

Tyler Scott:

Yeah, we had some electrical problems from the start of the race, and it was really disappointing. Obviously, it was my first Daytona 200, front row and right off the start I started to have problems with the shifter and a couple other things on the bike and everything just started shutting down. And I think at lap 16 it was getting unsafe to ride, so I just pulled off. And it sucks, but it was the safe thing to do.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah, I can't imagine with the speed you guys are doing at that event, not worth it when it's just a little too sketchy I would assume.

Tyler Scott:

Yeah, yep.

Dale Spangler:

So, did you catch the MotoGP over the weekend from Austin?

Tyler Scott:

I looked at the highlights. I didn't actually get to watch the race yet. I'm probably going to watch it tonight with my dad and one of my buddies that comes to the races with us.

But yeah, I'm going to watch probably the Moto2, the Moto3, MotoGP races. This year I'm actually really excited because we get to go there. I was there once before watching GP in I think 2018, so that's definitely going to be super exciting track to race.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah, you guys get a full actual round there this year, so that's got to be exciting. But yeah, the race was just — I won't give it away, but it was one of the most insane. I felt like it was like a race of attrition. Just like, there was just barely any riders left by the end of it. I think almost half the pack went out, so it was just pretty intense. I haven't seen a race like that in a while.

Tyler Scott:

Yeah, I've heard some things here and there and I've seen the highlights on Instagram and I'm excited to watch it.

Dale Spangler:

Well, you're set to go again for your second year with the team Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki. You'll be back on the kind of familiar GSX-R750 in the Supersport class.

But you got a new teammate this year, Teagg Hobbs is joining you in Supersport, but it's got to be a good feeling coming in with a little bit more confidence probably. You're familiar with the bike, familiar with the team. I would imagine you probably got some good feelings coming into this season.

Tyler Scott:

Yeah, no I feel I feel pretty good. Obviously, last year being my first year on the bike just kind of getting used to it. The bike still felt a little bit big just because I always rode small bikes.

But this year I think Teagg's going to be pretty good as well and I think he's going to be a good person to have as teammate along with Richie and Toni on Superbikes. Could probably learn a few things with them. I hear Toni is a really good guy too.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah, that was actually one thing I brought up cause with Toni Elías joining the team, the guy just has probably a wealth of knowledge, tons of experience. So, just having a guy like that in your corner to be able to talk to, whether it's set up, track, whatever, just to be able to discuss lines. It's got to be kind of a feather in your cap.

Tyler Scott:

Yeah. It's always nice to have a guy that's like a veteran on the team that has so much experience. So, if you ever have a rider question, you could just go to him and he's probably going to be straightforward with you since you're not racing against him.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah, it's interesting though because it's kind of like he steps in and then we've got another European rider that's probably going to be a contender for Superbike and so yeah, it's going to be another fun year.

For you though, it's got to be confidence aspiring coming in your first year, your rookie year you get nine podiums. You won your first Supersport race and you ended up third in the series. So, that's got to be another confidence booster for you coming into the season opener this weekend.

Tyler Scott:

Yeah, last year was pretty good, honestly speaking. Didn't really like how it turned out, thought I would do a little bit better. Just kind of struggled with some setup points all year.

Road America, it was a really good weekend for Saturday when we won the race, had really good pace, the bike handled great. Then Sunday we kind of got bumped wide by … crashed out.

But no, it was a really good year last year looking from the outside in, but I expected more race wins and a little bit higher up in points. But this year the primary goal is just to win as many races as possible and win championship.

Dale Spangler:

That kind of says a lot right there, that you put that pressure on yourself to where like, yeah okay, you got third the series, most people will be like, “Wow, that's a great finish for your first year in the class.”

But sounds to me like you have aspirations to go, you want to take that step even further.

Tyler Scott:

Yeah, yeah. For sure. And this year there's some fast riders. I know Rocco's going to be fast. I'm not sure if he's doing all the races yet though, from what I've heard. I don't know if he's going to be at Atlanta.

Hopefully he is because he's really fast. It'd be interesting to see how the Italian guy does. He wasn't really up to pace in Daytona as I thought he would be and as probably most people thought he would be. But no, I'm super excited. I think it's going to be a great year with some great competition.

Dale Spangler:

MotoAmerica in general, I feel like no matter what class you watch, there's just good battling all the way around. So, it's always fun to watch MotoAmerica.

Tyler Scott:

Yeah.

Dale Spangler:

Let's switch gears a little bit. You mentioned having your place down there in Florida, I would assume that's where you go to train throughout the wintertime. Did you do anything differently over this winter to prepare for your second season in Supersport?

Tyler Scott:

Not really. Just trained harder. And I'm a little bit bigger now and stronger now, so it's just everything's like a little step better this winter. When I hop on the super motorbike, I'm a little bit faster this winter and I learned a few different things, not really big major things anymore. Because I have a lot of experience on GP bikes and all that stuff, but I'm constantly learning every day. Like even in the gym lifting weights or on my bicycle or on my motorcycle just a little bit every day helps.

Dale Spangler:

You're 17 or you 18 now?

Tyler Scott:

17. I'll turn 18 in December.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah, that alone, I hear it all the time in Moto, that's kind of where I came from, Moto. But it's just like you're at that age where you still need to develop maybe the “man muscle” if you want to call it that, where over time you kind of build up that muscle to where you can ride the bigger bikes, throw them around a little more.

Did I see where you went to Johnny Lewis's Moto Anatomy facility down in Florida as well? Is that something else you kind of added into your mix or you always do that?

Tyler Scott:

We've been there in the past. I remember at the beginning of last year we did a pro flat track race that we were contending for the win in the singles class, and we went there to train before.

And this year I called him up and he had a Moto track there last year and he still had it and I was like, “Hey, do you mind if I come and ride Moto?” And he is like, “No yeah, it's fine.” And it's like a half hour away from where we are right now in Florida.

So, I was over there. I remember the one week I was over there I think two times and his track's like deep sand, so it was a really good track to ride for muscle endurance and cardio.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah, good conditioning for sure.

Tyler Scott:

Yeah.

Dale Spangler:

Do you moto quite a bit then? Because some of the photos I saw, you've looked pretty comfortable on a motocross bike. You know, I don't like often see that where a lot of times road race guys look a little awkward on moto bikes, but you look super comfortable throwing it around, almost doing some scrubs. So, is that just something you do regularly for training?

Tyler Scott:

Not really, no. I don't have a lot of Moto experience under my belt.

Dale Spangler:

Wow. You’d never know that. You got the style, you know?

Tyler Scott:

Yeah. I've got a good bit of experience but not too much, just trying to have some style and go fast than just put in long sessions.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah. Not much better full body exercise than motoring, especially like those deep sand tracks where you're just smashing whoops for 30 minutes.

Tyler Scott:

Yeah, yeah. You mentioned flat track, so I'm sure that that's a big part of your background I think growing up, but is that something that's going to be on your schedule again? I know you do some kind of one-off races here and there or is it primarily just road race this year you're going to focus on?

Tyler Scott:

I don't know, I haven't rode a flat track bike in over a year now, so I don't know what's going to happen. I definitely would like to do a wild card race, but I don't know, we'll see you down the road. I definitely want to do some flat track, but just when the time's right.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah. Maybe more so for fun just to kind of get out and do something different and change it up maybe.

Tyler Scott:

Yeah.

Dale Spangler:

I think I know the answer to this, but so many guys come from that flat track background. Is that something you feel like is an advantage on the actual pavement too? Because when you're able to drift the bike, it just feels a little more comfortable and natural.

Tyler Scott:

Yeah. You have that feeling of the side grip of the tire and when it starts to spin and what to do with your body to get more grip or have more control.

Dale Spangler:

Well, I've asked this question before to some other racers I've had on the show, but do you think the … your experience, because I know you spent some time over in Europe doing the Red Bull Cup over there. I feel like that travel experience really helps mature racers and helps them kind of, I guess progress quicker in their career. Was that the case for you? Do you feel like that experience over there helped you kind of grow up a little quicker?

Tyler Scott:

More of the experience of riding with the other riders over there. They have a little bit different style of racing. Over there, the top 30 riders are within two seconds.

Dale Spangler:

Wow.

Tyler Scott:

The whole industry over there from motorcycle racing is bigger. Everyone rides motorcycles on the street, everyone's into it. It's like our football, over there. They have motorcycle racing where they can go play soccer where we have all these other sports and I think motorcycle racing kind of gets shuffled at the bottom.

But yeah, it's definitely super big over there and everyone's into it. I remember going to a training camp while I was over there around probably three in the afternoon, the Spanish training guy that we got connected with and I was riding and these minivans pull up and it's like three-year-olds after school, four-year-olds, five-year-olds with pocket bikes and their mom dropping them off at this little road race training camp.

Dale Spangler:

No way.

Tyler Scott:

And it was just like, it's so different over there than it is over here popularity wise. That's why I think some of those Spanish kids are so fast just because it's like that was everything to them. And then there's so many kids that they're competing against each other and they all build each other a little bit faster than maybe some kids in the States.

Dale Spangler:

So, a Moto mom is kind of like a soccer mom here in the states probably, running them around.

Tyler Scott:

Yeah. But it definitely wasn't easy. It was kind of getting thrown to the sharks. Over here I was just racing NSF250 against SV650s and over there I'm racing against 39 other NSFs with kids that have been riding road race since they're three-years-old. So, definitely it was sort of a rude awakening if you want to look at it that way.

Dale Spangler:

Some of the best battles I've seen are been those classes where it's like you said, it's 40 riders and there's somebody will be in 10th and the next thing you know they're leading and they're back to fifth and it's just like everybody drafting off each other. It's super just high-speed action the whole time.

Tyler Scott:

Yeah. Just like MotoGP, like the Moto3 class, how they go back and forth and they're bumping into each other and swerving and it's like chaos. But that's like their normal racing style over there.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah. And I would assume that just, you get used to that environment and you come back to MotoAmerica and it's kind of like, oh geez, I'm not even going to get stressed about it. Like you said, you have these 40 legit riders and maybe come back here, there might be 5 to 10. But yeah, that's a whole different level when you got all those riders battling at once.

Tyler Scott:

Yeah. It definitely increased how I rode and definitely being over there, how quickly I adapt to tracks because we would have two practice sessions or one practice qualifying or two and then the race and like all these kids have ridden these tracks. Like I said, you'd have to go there and be on pace with that quality one. So, that was probably the biggest thing that we had to overcome was getting used to the tracks as quick as possible.

Dale Spangler:

Wow. Is there any way that you could kind of relearn some of those tracks? So, like video games or anything like that?

Tyler Scott:

Yeah, I played video games, and I watched videos online and watched the MotoGP races. That's as much as you can do. It helped a little bit just to like kind of know where the track went and when you get there and you walk the track, you could be like, oh well this was here in the game, or I saw this when I was watching MotoGP. And when you get on the bike you kind of have a better understanding of at least where the track goes.

Dale Spangler:

We'll get back to the conversation in one moment, but first, here's a word from our sponsor.

So, this may seem like an odd question, but for … I spent some time myself over in Europe in the late 90s, early 2000. Like it was a two-year span, I was with Alpinestars.

But anyways, one of the things I always think about with my time spent over there is there's some food items that I absolutely miss here in the States. Mine was Italian pizza and the cappuccinos. I still have never had a pizza that's as good as what I had in Italy or a cappuccino.

So, I'm wondering if there's some items like that that you ran into during your time in Europe?

Tyler Scott:

Yeah, a couple things actually. Like I think it's called couscous. I don't know, it was super different, and it had just such a unique taste. Aquarius, I think that's how you say it was a drink and it was a drink I actually drank a lot over there. It's sort of like a Gatorade, I think I really like that drink that's not here in the States.

And also, the bread, if you go to the market and you grab a fresh baguette at nine in the morning, you got to eat it before 12, otherwise it's like rock hard by afternoon. Because they make it so fresh with no preservatives and when you eat the bread you don't gain the same weight that you do here in the States because of the additive.

Dale Spangler:

Interesting. Yeah, I've heard too, because you spent time in Spain, there's some tradition I think there where they have these meats, like a piece of meat that they just aged for like, I don't know, year or two.

And one of the road racers one time when they retired, that's what they gave him was this piece of meat that was, I guess worth a ton of money, and it had aged for two or three years. Did you run across anything like that?

Tyler Scott:

I remember seeing that they would have the pieces of meat hanging for sale and they were like hundreds of dollars, but I'm not sure if I ever ate any of that. We ate a lot of interesting things when we were over there.

I know we ate a raw hamburger, one of the first times that we went over there because we didn't know that it was raw. I knew that it was a hamburger and it had this, this and this in it, but I didn't — I knew very little Spanish to get by to order food and get directions. That was about it.

So yeah, we had some interesting seafood, like raw hamburger and the pasta over there was really good. We rode to Italy a few times, so the pizza over there was really good.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah, I think the strangest things I had over there were, I had horse, which I guess Italians eat horse. Like, wow. That was a first for me.

And then sea urchin, which I went to Jerez for the MotoGP there. Of course, this was the 90s, this was when they were riding the 502 strokes and it was Mick Doohan days, way before your time, you weren't even born.

Yes, we had sea urchin in Jerez before the race there and like talk about event. Did you get to go to that event because, wow, what a venue.

Tyler Scott:

Yeah, I was at Jerez for the Red Bull Rookies Cup and yeah, that was super cool. They shut down. So, we had a hotel in the city, they shut down the one side of the highway. So, it was four lanes going to the track at the beginning of the day, then four lanes coming out of the track at the end of the day. And the motorcycle lot was like the biggest crowd of motorcycles I've ever seen.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah. When I was there it was like they even had a road shut down where everybody was kind of showing off doing standup wheelies and it was just chaos. So, like you said, it was just a motorcycle Mecca and like a beautiful location and definitely a historical facility for sure.

Let's switch gears a little bit and talk a little bit more about MotoAmerica. To me I feel like MotoAmerica has become this pathway for American racers with world aspirations. Would you say that's definitely the case?

Because I feel like it just keeps getting better and better and the level of racing in the U.S. is getting higher to the point where I think there will be some guys like you that might have some chances to go over to Europe in the future.

Tyler Scott:

Yeah, SDK is obviously a prime example of that, being on the M4 team for a couple years, then getting the opportunity to go overseas for two years. So, the access way, like the bridge to GP is definitely there from the U.S., though it is a lot harder than in Spain.

Dale Spangler:

So, what are some of your immediate goals here for the future? I would assume compete for that Supersport title this year, maybe go to Superbike and then, what are your thoughts after that? Just kind of figure it out as it goes?

Tyler Scott:

Yeah, pretty much. So, the two-year goal right now, I, we just signed two-year contracts, so the primary goal right now is win championship this year. Go direct to Superbike next year and just see where we place.

Dale Spangler:

Keep progressing, right?

Tyler Scott:

Yeah.

Dale Spangler:

So, if you weren't racing motorcycles, is there something else that you love as much as motorcycles? Like would you be doing that or it’s just motorcycles?

Tyler Scott:

Probably mountain bike racing, probably Enduro racing or downhill racing.

Dale Spangler:

No aspirations to go back to the family dealership or anything like that?

Tyler Scott:

Yeah, I work there, here and there throughout the week. I'll do a couple hours each day, but definitely I would still want to be on two wheels as my profession.

Dale Spangler:

Right on. I got to say this though, I was looking through your Instagram and I have to say, you probably have one of the best poker face/race face expressions I've ever seen on a racer. You got an intense look, man.

Is that just something that you just — it's just who you are? Like you get in that focused moment when you're at the races and everything else is tuned out? Or is it just kind of like something you do on purpose to maybe kind of intimidate racers?

Tyler Scott:

I don't know. A lot of people tell me I need to smile more when I'm in the paddock, like they say I look like I want to like fight someone. It's pretty funny.

But no, I don't do it on purpose. I know it's intimidated a couple people.

Dale Spangler:

Nice.

Tyler Scott:

Even teammates I've had in the past, like a year or two after, it's came up in conversations that it was intimidating when I would look at them in the pit box or whatever.

But yeah, no, I don't do that on purpose. It's just I guess I'm focused, and it makes me look mean.

Dale Spangler:

Unintentional mean mugging, right?

Tyler Scott:

Yeah.

Dale Spangler:

Well as we're winding down here, what are your goals coming in this weekend? I would assume you're going for the win, with the season you had last year, just from talking to you, the kind of like what you expect out of yourself. It sounds like, I would assume you're going for the title and for wins, as the primary goal this weekend coming to Road Atlanta.

Tyler Scott:

Yeah, we just want to be at the top, all weekend, if possible, from practice one to the end of Sunday race two, goal is to be on the top of the podium twice and get a good qualifying.

Dale Spangler:

Well, really appreciate your time today, Tyler. As we wind this down, wanted to give you an opportunity right now if there's anybody you want to thank or shout out or anything else you wanted to share that you have going on in your life and your racing career that you maybe want to share with some listeners out there?

Tyler Scott:

Yeah no, just the whole Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki team for giving me the opportunity again this year and next year. And really excited to see where we can go with them. And mom and dad for always supporting me and I'm just ready to go for round one.

[Music Playing]

Dale Spangler:

Awesome. Well, it looks like you have a good support system with your family, speaking of your family. Because I know your dad was a former racer too and kind of helped get you into it and sounds like you got a good group of people behind you, in addition to the M4 Suzuki team.

So, wish you all the best, Tyler, look forward to catching up with you again here soon and see how your season went.

Tyler Scott:

Thank you.

Dale Spangler:

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I'm Dale Spangler. I hope you'll join us next week for another episode of Pit Pass Moto. Thanks for listening.