Photos Cameron Flaisch: Left: Donnie Scott Right: Edwin B. Scott
Edwin B. “Catfish” Scott and his son, Donnie Scott, share more than the same DNA in their blood; they also share their love for cars and drag racing.
Catfish learned to work on cars from his older brother, Herbert Don Elbert Scott, for whom his son Donnie is named for. “When momma needed a babysitter, she’d send me to him….That was it. I always was into music and cars.
When Donnie came along, well, next thing I know, every time I was out there in the shop trying to make a little bit of extra money, he’s there hanging out with me. And next thing I know, he’s welding and working. He picked it up too and ran with it,” Catfish explains.
Donnie nodded in agreement. “He was always busy working, so the only time I could spend time with him was when he was working on cars. Seeing him face those challenges inspired me.”
When young Donnie was just 12, he saved up his money from helping his mother work at a Dodge dealership and bought himself his very first car. That first fixer-upper lead Donnie and his father to continue tinkering on cars and their engines for the next few decades.
In 2012, after taking a back road home to Georgia from Alabama, the father and son saw an older Honda CRX sitting up on cinder blocks by the road, which would soon become their first official racing car.
“We put a motor in it, took it to the track, and it went faster than we thought it was going to go. And that’s when we realized that we had something special,” smiles Donnie.
At first the duo took their new racing car to local Georgia drag racing events. As they got it to go faster and faster, they began taking it to a national scale, traveling to places like New Jersey and Florida.
After deciding to put a bigger motor in the car, they progressed to 9.82 seconds and 140 mph in one quarter mile, breaking the 8 series motor record in 2015.
After that success, Catfish and Donnie decided they were ready for a new car and a new challenge. They are now working on rebuilding a 1993 Honda Civic to take to races such as the OGS 1320, H Day, Import Showdown and Import Face Off Races. Most notably, they’re also scheduled to compete at the World Cup Finals, an elite drag race boasting of over 30,000 international and national spectators at the Maryland International Raceway from October 31 to November 4.
While father and son are equally proud of each other and all they have accomplished, Catfish could not help but smile as he bragged on his son: “Donnie is the baddest mechanic, he is the most awesome dude that there ever was. When you see the passion this guy has, how much he does; you want to help and support those kinds of people, because they have passion like you wouldn’t believe,” says Catfish.
It is this passion and love that makes the Scott men winners in not only car racing, but also family.
