Pye on running a small business in lockdown

Scott Pye has spoken on the challenges of managing his media company while Victoria remains in lockdown, but has admitted he feels "lucky" during a difficult time for small business owners.

The Team 18 driver recently relocated to New South Wales and into 14-day quarantine to allow him to travel to the Northern Territory for the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown later this month.

Despite the COVID-19 outbreak in Victoria, Pye says his Melbourne-based media agency One Nine Media remains busy, and he is able to coordinate projects remotely.

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“It’s been okay, we’ve been really busy at the moment,” Pye told Supercars.com in an all-in driver chat.

“I have three guys that work for me, and they are doing an amazing job.

“Coordinating a project while in Victoria and in lockdown is okay; I feel we are fortunate that it is a job for Vic Health, so I think it will help make it achievable.”

Pye began One Nine Media three years ago and works with a variety of clients including Porsche Motorsport Australia, Queensland Rugby League, the Disability Expo, and various retailers.

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Taking its name from when Pye first began karting at a young age, the now 30-year-old dedicates his time off-track to build the business to allow him to remain in the sport once he retires from full-time driving.

Due to restrictions currently in place throughout Greater Melbourne, like many businesses, the One Nine Media team is working remotely.

“For small businesses it is a difficult time, especially depending on what it is that you do,” Pye explained.

“For us we are lucky we create a lot of content for online platforms so we can do that pretty much from anywhere.

“My office is a hub that we base ourselves from, but at the same time we can pack everything up pretty quickly, so that’s what we did, everyone took home their hard drives and computers from work and is working remotely.

“We do film on-site so that does make it difficult at the moment.”

Earlier this week, Pye thanked his team for its sacrifice to go on the road ahead of the event in the Northern Territory on his social accounts.

Looking ahead to Darwin, the two-time Bathurst podium finisher is keen to return to where he scored the team’s first podium as a standalone outfit and two third-place finishes at the circuit the following weekend.

Pye netted three podiums in Darwin in 2020

“Everyone starts at the same point,” he said.

“We do have confidence from what we achieved last year but we know we’ve got to go there and back it up.

“I’m excited to be back on the road again and focussing on racing, I think that worked well for us last year and helped to build momentum going into the second half of the season.”

The Repco Supercars Championship field will return to the Northern Territory for the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown across June 18-20. Tickets are available here.

The event will be broadcast live on Foxtel and will be streamed on Kayo, and will be broadcast live and free on Seven.