Scott Clements Profile

S.Clements

B.ED (Uni SA)

                                                                                                                                 

          Scott Clements was born at Ashford Community Hospital in South Australia in 1972. His mother Jan, and father Terry, emigrated to Australia form the United Kingdom in 1967, and eventually settled in the Adelaide hills.

Scott says:

"I grew up here in the hills and I will always be a hills boy at heart no matter where I am. As young boy I spent many hours playing with BMX bikes, building plastic models, riding motor bikes, fishing and doing all of the usual things that boys do.

My first playpen was a stack of tyres at the family workshop. It was only a matter of time before my interest in vehicles began to grow. I guess I've always had a fascination with anything mechanical or electrical; by the time I made it to high school I just wanted to build and operate things. This interest came from parents. My father came from a mechanical background and both of my parents have been involved with motorsport for a long time.

My father and I rebuilt my first car from the ground up, from what others would call a wreck, ready for when I got my driver's licence. Around this time I completed some work experience at Lobethal's Claude Black Motors as a mechanic and I was offered an apprenticeship by Rod Eckermann. After much thought, I decided to go back to school and continue to study. I wasn't sure what I really wanted to do but I thought staying at school was the better option.

After completing year 12 my technology teacher put the idea in my head of becoming a teacher. I scored three 20s in year 12 and finished top in the state for Furniture Construction and Creative Woodwork. After going to government house for the merit ceremony I applied to go to university. During my time at Uni SA I studied electronics, photography, sheet metalwork, welding and fabrication, metal machining, plastics, composites, materials, technical drawing and graphic rendering. Automotive was my major teaching degree with the sciences as my sub-major.

While at university I spent my spare time racing model cars at Littlehampton. This is where I developed a number of skills and desires which included attention to detail and a will to win. I eventually became 1/8 scale gas State Champion and number 5 in Australia. Around this time my father and I decided to make the jump to car racing and we began our next car restoration project. By this time I had graduated and did relief teaching.

I tried my hand at a number of other jobs, including working: as a design engineer; in a vineyard; as a chauffeur and being a duty manager at a bar. For a three year period I held down three jobs to fund the build of my first racecar. I began racing in 1997 and since then I have gone on to be reasonably successful in a category know as Improved Production:

  • 2001 South Australian Improved Production Driver Of The Year Runner Up
  • 2001 South Australian Improved Production Class D Runner Up
  • 2002 South Australian Improved Production Driver Of The Year
  • 2002 South Australian Improved Production Class D Champion
  • 2002 Sporting Car Club Of SA Improved Production Multi-club Champion
  • 2003 Sporting Car Club Of SA Improved Production Multi-club Runner Up
  • 2003 South Australian Improved Production Driver Of The Year
  • 2003 South Australian Improved Production Class D Champion
  • 2007 Returning to racing and winning the first round of the state titles.
  • 2007 Winning the AMC over 2lt Trophies for rounds 1 & 2
  • 2007 South Australian Improved Production Driver Of The Year
  • 2007 South Australian Improved Production Class D Champion
  • 2007 South Australian over 2lt Championship Runner Up
  • 2008 Doing development work for other teams

You can follow my racing activities at http://www.iprasa.mx.com.au/

Over the years I've taken some time away from my racing for various reasons, including buying and establishing a new house. My family and I have recently bought a successful automotive-based business. Currently I'm happy to be teaching Automotive at Mt Barker High School; however, in years to come I will shift my focus to running the family business.

Over the years I have worked with a number of race teams either as a mechanic or as a driver. I spent a lot of time in 2007 and 2008 working for a V8 Supercar team which was hard work but a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to racing again this year now that the family business is running smoothly.  Although I have a number of car and motorcycle projects on the go outside of my work and business commitments I have found time to develop a strong interest in snowboarding. So if you don't see me around the town or at the track I might just run into you on the snow slopes.

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