mrvette
Phantom of the Opera
Curiosity led scientist from studying rocks to racing cars
Washington Post
Bill Scott was known among his friends as a man whose curiosity led him down many paths.
In the late 1960s, he received a doctorate in geophysics from Yale University, and he spent his summers conducting research in the mountains of Iceland, Venezuela, and Norway. But he soon became dissatisfied by what he considered the humdrum nature of his work and yearned for more excitement.
"I didn't have good girlfriends," he once told European Car Magazine. "There was no tactile sensation. There was no loud noise."
Dr. Scott used his scientific background to become an open-wheel racecar driver. From 1965 to 1972, he entered 124 races, winning 42 times and finishing in the top three 77 times. His career highlights included two world championship titles and a sponsorship from Penthouse magazine.
In one event, Dr. Scott noted that the total mileage of the race would exceed his car's fuel capacity, which would push most drivers to plan a pit stop. Dr. Scott taped slabs of dry ice to the sides of his tank to condense the fuel and add to the car's capacity. When the rest of the field pitted for more fuel, Dr. Scott kept going and cruised to victory.
William Henry Scott IV, 71, who died of liver failure Dec. 7 in Winchester, Va., was involved in a serious racing accident in 1970 that left him barely able to walk. During one race, his car broke down, so he abandoned his vehicle to go flag down help. While standing in the middle of the track, he was struck by a speeding racecar. His hip was shattered. Despite excruciating pain, he was able to claim the U.S. Professional Super Vee championships in 1971 and 1972. The injury eventually left him arthritic and unable to continue racing at the highest levels.
He decided to start coaching other drivers and opened a driving school at a track he bought in Jefferson County, W.Va., that is now known as Summit Point Motorsports Park.
His seminars were informative and applicable to real-life situations, and they caught the attention of an Air Force colonel who had taken some of Dr. Scott's driving classes and who invited him to Washington for a meeting. Dr. Scott learned that the colonel worked for a top-secret government organization that had recently lost two of its officers when they were ambushed in their cars. The agency asked Dr. Scott to analyze all of its recent vehicular attacks and design a program to help them avoid further losses.
"I told them, 'You guys are really good at protecting an ambassador in a cavalcade of cars and cops,' " Dr. Scott told European Car Magazine, " 'but you really don't do a good job for the attaché or the guy who is out by himself.' "
Dr. Scott trained the drivers to maneuver evasively at high speed, even with tires blown out. His students learned how to perform a bootleg turn, a 180-degree spin without stopping, and how to control their vehicle during a wild spin.
His clients have included many U.S. Defense and State organizations, and a few foreign governments. Some of his instructors have been sent to Afghanistan to train Special Forces units in how to drive in off-road conditions.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Scott was at a race in New York that had been delayed because of rain. While biding time in a bookstore, he discovered an old book by U.P. Hedrick, "Fruits for the Home Garden."
Dr. Scott began experimenting on his farm near Middleburg, Va. He planted pears, plums, cherries, peaches, apricots, grapes, and gooseberries. He grafted 11 different varieties of apple onto a single tree.
Later, he decided the 30-acre cornfield alongside the front straightaway of his racetrack would be the perfect location for a high-density apple orchard. He eventually expanded the operation. At its peak, the orchard produced more than half a million apples a year for gourmet grocers across the nation. He trademarked two varieties he had crossed himself, Country Road and Mountaineer.
He had a special recipe for an apple cider that he aged into a wine and kept in the basement of his home. His favorite vintage was an even further distilled apple brandy that he labeled ODV, a playful take on the French term for water of life, eau de vie.
But the sweet taste of victory, combined with the shot of adrenaline Dr. Scott felt in the pit of his stomach as he gripped the rumbling steering wheel at the starting line, was an elixir he never replicated.
"I gave up my profession for racing," Dr. Scott once told a Hagerstown, Md., reporter. "It's real life. It has its own heartbeat."
...............................
the following from a VERY olde tyme friend/racer at Smut Point as we called it....GENE
-------------------------------
Bill was certainly an interesting character. Anna and I were at a Porsche Club of America banquet many years ago when Anna realized that she had forgotten to bring money for the cash bar. We all knew Bill fairly well, so Anna goes up to him and asks to borrow a few bucks for drinks. He whips out a thick roll and hands her the smallest denomination he has -- a hundred dollar bill.
That was the same banquet where Anna and I got trapped in the pool area after the staff had closed and locked the exits; we jimmied a door to get out, and the damn fire alarm was set off. We ended up emptying the entire 15-story hotel that night. We ran back to Anna's turbo Porsche and tore out of the parking lot before the staff could identify us. Ah, memories!
and a follow up message.....
In spite of his physical ailments, Bill was always a competitor. During the time that Bill was hosting Trans Am events at Summit Point, one of the drivers of the factory-blessed Corvettes couldn't compete, so they stuffed Bill into the Vette and he ran the entire race without relief. The guy had balls bigger than his apples!
another comment.....
Ah yes, great stuff indeed.
I'd forgotten about Bill's "strap the dry ice to the gas tank" stunt. One of the basic cliches about racing is that you know you've hit on something when you force a rules change. Although in road racing it's usually brought up in terms of Colin Chapman, in this case it applied to Bill Scott. After Bill did that, a proscription was incorporated into the rules making it illegal to cool the fuel tank; so I guess that could be Bill's "rules legacy."
As a footnote to that whole affair, that's where Roger Penske got the idea to surround his overhead refueling rigs with dry ice - which was also subsequently banned. There's little question that Penske got the idea from Bill.
Washington Post
Bill Scott was known among his friends as a man whose curiosity led him down many paths.
In the late 1960s, he received a doctorate in geophysics from Yale University, and he spent his summers conducting research in the mountains of Iceland, Venezuela, and Norway. But he soon became dissatisfied by what he considered the humdrum nature of his work and yearned for more excitement.
"I didn't have good girlfriends," he once told European Car Magazine. "There was no tactile sensation. There was no loud noise."
Dr. Scott used his scientific background to become an open-wheel racecar driver. From 1965 to 1972, he entered 124 races, winning 42 times and finishing in the top three 77 times. His career highlights included two world championship titles and a sponsorship from Penthouse magazine.
In one event, Dr. Scott noted that the total mileage of the race would exceed his car's fuel capacity, which would push most drivers to plan a pit stop. Dr. Scott taped slabs of dry ice to the sides of his tank to condense the fuel and add to the car's capacity. When the rest of the field pitted for more fuel, Dr. Scott kept going and cruised to victory.
William Henry Scott IV, 71, who died of liver failure Dec. 7 in Winchester, Va., was involved in a serious racing accident in 1970 that left him barely able to walk. During one race, his car broke down, so he abandoned his vehicle to go flag down help. While standing in the middle of the track, he was struck by a speeding racecar. His hip was shattered. Despite excruciating pain, he was able to claim the U.S. Professional Super Vee championships in 1971 and 1972. The injury eventually left him arthritic and unable to continue racing at the highest levels.
He decided to start coaching other drivers and opened a driving school at a track he bought in Jefferson County, W.Va., that is now known as Summit Point Motorsports Park.
His seminars were informative and applicable to real-life situations, and they caught the attention of an Air Force colonel who had taken some of Dr. Scott's driving classes and who invited him to Washington for a meeting. Dr. Scott learned that the colonel worked for a top-secret government organization that had recently lost two of its officers when they were ambushed in their cars. The agency asked Dr. Scott to analyze all of its recent vehicular attacks and design a program to help them avoid further losses.
"I told them, 'You guys are really good at protecting an ambassador in a cavalcade of cars and cops,' " Dr. Scott told European Car Magazine, " 'but you really don't do a good job for the attaché or the guy who is out by himself.' "
Dr. Scott trained the drivers to maneuver evasively at high speed, even with tires blown out. His students learned how to perform a bootleg turn, a 180-degree spin without stopping, and how to control their vehicle during a wild spin.
His clients have included many U.S. Defense and State organizations, and a few foreign governments. Some of his instructors have been sent to Afghanistan to train Special Forces units in how to drive in off-road conditions.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Scott was at a race in New York that had been delayed because of rain. While biding time in a bookstore, he discovered an old book by U.P. Hedrick, "Fruits for the Home Garden."
Dr. Scott began experimenting on his farm near Middleburg, Va. He planted pears, plums, cherries, peaches, apricots, grapes, and gooseberries. He grafted 11 different varieties of apple onto a single tree.
Later, he decided the 30-acre cornfield alongside the front straightaway of his racetrack would be the perfect location for a high-density apple orchard. He eventually expanded the operation. At its peak, the orchard produced more than half a million apples a year for gourmet grocers across the nation. He trademarked two varieties he had crossed himself, Country Road and Mountaineer.
He had a special recipe for an apple cider that he aged into a wine and kept in the basement of his home. His favorite vintage was an even further distilled apple brandy that he labeled ODV, a playful take on the French term for water of life, eau de vie.
But the sweet taste of victory, combined with the shot of adrenaline Dr. Scott felt in the pit of his stomach as he gripped the rumbling steering wheel at the starting line, was an elixir he never replicated.
"I gave up my profession for racing," Dr. Scott once told a Hagerstown, Md., reporter. "It's real life. It has its own heartbeat."
...............................
the following from a VERY olde tyme friend/racer at Smut Point as we called it....GENE
-------------------------------
Bill was certainly an interesting character. Anna and I were at a Porsche Club of America banquet many years ago when Anna realized that she had forgotten to bring money for the cash bar. We all knew Bill fairly well, so Anna goes up to him and asks to borrow a few bucks for drinks. He whips out a thick roll and hands her the smallest denomination he has -- a hundred dollar bill.
That was the same banquet where Anna and I got trapped in the pool area after the staff had closed and locked the exits; we jimmied a door to get out, and the damn fire alarm was set off. We ended up emptying the entire 15-story hotel that night. We ran back to Anna's turbo Porsche and tore out of the parking lot before the staff could identify us. Ah, memories!
and a follow up message.....
In spite of his physical ailments, Bill was always a competitor. During the time that Bill was hosting Trans Am events at Summit Point, one of the drivers of the factory-blessed Corvettes couldn't compete, so they stuffed Bill into the Vette and he ran the entire race without relief. The guy had balls bigger than his apples!
another comment.....
Ah yes, great stuff indeed.
I'd forgotten about Bill's "strap the dry ice to the gas tank" stunt. One of the basic cliches about racing is that you know you've hit on something when you force a rules change. Although in road racing it's usually brought up in terms of Colin Chapman, in this case it applied to Bill Scott. After Bill did that, a proscription was incorporated into the rules making it illegal to cool the fuel tank; so I guess that could be Bill's "rules legacy."
As a footnote to that whole affair, that's where Roger Penske got the idea to surround his overhead refueling rigs with dry ice - which was also subsequently banned. There's little question that Penske got the idea from Bill.
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