Who exactly is Tyler Scott?
I was adopted from Russia when
I was less than a year old. My
dad, Mike Scott, used to race
flat track. He did some road
race, too. In his later days, he
did drag racing. He's the guy
that started it all for me.
When I was little, he would
ride me around on a 50 a couple
hours a week. I loved it. Then
when I was about three, he gave
me a PW50. I started learning
on that. I couldn't race until I was
four, and then I started doing
flat track races. I did quite well
right off the start, winning a few
races. I was solely just flat track
The Russian-born Scott, who
made America his home after
being adopted at age one, has
just stuck his next-gen GSX-
R750 on pole, 0.383 seconds
up on Herrin's bespoke Panigale
V2. It's a remarkable perfor-
mance from a kid who last year
took the only single-cylinder
machine in the Junior Cup, the
KTM RC390, to the national
championship against a sea of
Kawasaki Ninja 400s.
Scott's raw speed, allied with
an uncanny ability to stay on the
motorcycle for a person his age,
has been one of the highlights of
MotoAmerica 2022. He's already
taken a Supersport win in race
one at Road America, and had
it not been for Herrin's reborn
rampage, would be standing on
top of the points tally.
We caught up with the ar-
ticulate young Scott just before
race one at Laguna Seca, where
he played cat and mouse with
Herrin to take another podium,
second place, in his very young
career.
INTERVIEW I ROAD RACER TYLER SCOTT
P100
until about I was eight. Then
I went to New Jersey for Mo-
toAmerica, and we saw this little
exhibition with the stunt guys of
little kids doing circle road race
drills on the asphalt. We were
like, "That's pretty cool. We
should go try that." So, that's
kind of where my road racing
career started, with the New
Jersey Mini GP up there.
Where do you live?
Pennsylvania. I started up there
with those guys, they kind of
gave me the base in road racing
and taught me everything up
until the point where I was 10,
Podiums have been coming
fast in 2022 in Scott's first year
on the Supersport machine.
"I FEEL LIKE
I'M IN A REALLY
GOOD SPOT
FOR SOME
OPPORTUNITIES."
