Times Observer Photo by Scott Kindberg From the left are Chevy Scott and his son, Ryan, in their garage in Garland.

GARLAND — When Ryan Scott was a little boy, he would sit in the stands at Stateline and Eriez speedways every weekend, play with his Matchbox cars and root for his dad, Chevy, and his uncle, David, as they competed on the area dirt tracks.

“Being at the races when you’re a kid is just, in my opinion, the most amazing thing to do,” said Ryan, now 34, from his garage last week. “When you’re at the race, whether you’re from Ripley, New York or Garland, Pennsylvania, it’s just like a family. When I was going to the races and watching the cars, I was thinking maybe I could do that someday. That it could be me.”

Ryan turned out to be prophetic.

His latest adventure has taken him to the World of Outlaws Late Model Series where he is one of four Rookie of the Year contenders. How that turns out remains to be seen — the Series features 58 stops in 16 different states through November — but when you’re part of a family that values dirt-track racing like the Scott family has for more than a half-century, pushing pedal to the metal is what they’ve always known and loved.

“We normally just race regionally. Between COVID and just bad luck in the last year or so, we’ve lost some important people in our lives around here,” Ryan said. “It kind of brings back the fact that you only live once (and) you do have to do things and not keep putting stuff off until tomorrow, because there’s not always a guarantee that tomorrow will be there.”

ı ı ı

Ryan and Chevy are scheduled to leave Sunday for the DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia, (Florida) Raceway Park. It will be Ryan’s second stop at that track this year. Last month, he placed 25th and 28th in the two races at the Sunshine Nationals.

“We learned an absolute ton while we were there,” Ryan said. “That’s not a race track that I’m necessarily that comfortable with because of the size, but we definitely learned a lot. We actually came home, put our heads together and we think we figured out some stuff. I think we’ll be a lot better off when we go back down.”

Ryan admitted that driving Late Models is tough.

“When you go to our northern tracks, like Stateline and Eriez and Raceway 7, you’re not racing against mediocre people,” he said. “You’re racing against people that have all the stuff that the traveling guys do. You race against Chub (Frank) and Boom (Briggs), who have always traveled on a weekly basis … so your stuff has to be right. I think we’ve got a piece of equipment that will work (next week). We’re a little short in our motor program, but that’s stuff we’re trying to work on. I think it will work out.”

Cheering Ryan and Chevy on is Stateline Speedway owner Jim Scott, the patriarch of the family.

“My grandfather is 82 years old and he’s done a lot of racing in his life,” Ryan said. “He went to Talladega and raced and he went to Daytona and raced, but he is ecstatic that we’re even trying to do this, because he still loves racing. If I can go there and do well, it makes you feel good that he got to see that and be part of that.”

ı ı ı

Ryan and his wife, Michaela, have five girls ranging in age from 10 to 2. He also works with his dad in the family wrecking yard. So after spending a week in Volusia last month, Ryan, Chevy and another crew member hopped in their hauler and drove 20 hours home. By 8 a.m. the next day, Ryan was back to work crushing cars.

“This isn’t a free thing,” Ryan said. “Our family business is what helps pay our racing program.”

And as he juggles his roles as a husband, father, family business employee and dirt-track driver, the 2004 Youngsville High School graduate never forgets where he comes from.

“I feel I’m representing, to the best of my ability, the people back home,” Ryan said. “(Garland) may be in the middle of nowhere, but we can still do stuff.”

In more than 20 career events in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, Ryan has qualified for four features. His career-best showing came in June 2018 with an eighth-place finish at Stateline. The Series is scheduled to return there on June 17.

Until then, what are Ryan’s expectations for his rookie season?

“Realistically, for me, is to move forward in those races, grow as a driver and keep trying to make myself better, whether it’s behind the wheel or whether it’s trying to make our equipment better.”

That way, no matter what happens on the national stage as a full-time driver in 2021, Ryan knows he’ll be better for it.

“There’s some stuff that you learn on the road that you just don’t learn around home,” Ryan said.