TROY ‘The Slider’ Scott was always the odd one out in a family of horse riders.
His passion was instead for riding motorcycles, ever since being taken to a national speedway meeting by his father at the age of seven.
“I can remember it clear as day, and I just freaked out,” he said.
“The lights, the colour, the noise. Everything about it. Apparently, though I don’t remember it, I said to my father ‘I want to be a national speedway racer’ that day.”
He was given his first motorbike at the age of 10, and started with the Broken Hill Junior Mini Bike Club.
“Back in those days you couldn’t race mini bikes in NSW if you were under 16, so we would go out to the track in Cockburn, on the other side of the border,” he said.
“That’s where I started in 1979.”
After two years racing at Cockburn, the Broken Hill track was built and Scott joined the motorcross team.
“I went from an 80CC bike to a 500CC, which was difficult because I wasn’t physically strong enough, my body hadn’t developed yet.”
He spent a few years riding in Broken Hill before moving to the UK to race at the age of 21.
“The first year there was probably the hardest time of my life, because I was completely on my own,” he said.
Scott was then traded to the second division team, but said he struggled so much with the track that he was concerned about getting sacked.
“It was like going 60 miles an hour and trying to turn around a coke can, it was the worst track I’d ridden in my life,” he said.
“No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get the hang of it.”
Scott was fortunately drafted by the Berwick Bandits in the British League, so he found himself in the first division of the No.1 league in the world.
“I was an emergency rider – a backup rider for the team,” he said.
“I’d travel with the team but sometimes I wouldn’t ride. But when I got my chance, I won a meeting. It was called the Start Of Tomorrow meeting, and was all the top reserve riders coming together. I rode what they call a maximum, which means I won every race, and they put me in the team.”
Scott said the year he joined, 1991, was the only year Berwick has ever been in the first division.
During the Gold Cup final, Berwick were to race against Oxford, who were the premier team, and the Bandits were seen as the underdogs.
“If you follow the footy, Oxford were the Hawks in the 80s,” he said.
“I was riding for Footscray. So the odds were ridiculous.”
Thought Scott was involved in an accident during the race, the Bandits went on to win the Gold Cup, with him as part of the team.
In 1992 Scott accepted an offer to ride with Scotland, his grandfather’s home country.
“My grandfather was still alive and I remember ringing him when I got to Glasgow and he said ‘where are you?’ I said I’m in Glasgow, here in Scotland. In fact I’m going to be riding for Scotland. He just went off singing out, he was so proud. It was pretty special.”
Scott eventually returned to Australia and competed in races in Queensland.
“I started realising that I’d achieved what I’d wanted to achieve, I’d been the best I could be,” he said.
“I was tired and homesick, I just wanted to go home.”
Scott planned to retire after a final race at the speedway where it had all begun, in Broken Hill.
“I didn’t tell anyone I was retiring, I didn’t want a big deal made and I wanted to concentrate, to be the best I could be one last time,” he said.
“I rode my last race at the Broken Hill Speedway, and I won my last race here.”
Scott said the Speedway in Broken Hill reopening last week was huge for him and for the town.
“To me, Broken Hill Speedway is hallowed ground,” he said.
“This is my MCG. It made me. There’s a misconception we so often hear, people say that they have to take their kids to the city to progress in sport. Let me tell you, it’s just not true. I was just a little boy from the bush with a dream, there’s nothing special about me. But this place and the support I got from this community, it made me what I am today. Broken Hill did everything to get me to that point.”
Scott was inducted into the Far West Sporting Hall of Fame in 2023 for his achievements. At the ceremony, he discovered he’d be inducted by a local kid called Lester Andrews.
“They handed me a paper and it said he liked soccer, basketballs and riding, and that he was 10 years old,” he said.
“Well I was 10 years old when I began riding. So Lester comes up to induct me, and I was pretty emotional this day, they were playing footage and audio of me riding, and Lester comes up and I look at him and it was like looking at myself.”
Scott went to watch Andrews race, and when returning to the track he said he felt that the racing part of him that had laid dormant instantly returned.
“The pits, the bikes, the start, it all slipped into gear,” he said.
“I watched Lester and I could see he was struggling a bit, and I felt compelled to help.”
Scott began coaching Andrews, and the pair now meet at the Speedway every Tuesday.
“His whole demeanor has changed, he’s a confident rider now,” Scott said.
Andrews has been riding for five years since the age of five, and said he loves thrill of the sport.
“Troy coaching me has been great, I love it!” he said.
