Trackin' Down: Gerald Short

Gerald Short

An extract from Ian Gill's interview with Gerald Short that appears in Trackin' Down 4

Offers to sign for Coventry were likely to have come along in time, but at the time, as British Champion, I had just started to get involved with the lucrative Continental grass-track scene. Another factor that I took into consideration was that I didn't like the idea of not being my own boss, and I realised that if I signed a speedway contract, I'd be racing every Saturday night and I would be at the beck and call of the promoters. In Germany and France, I could be earning good money at the weekends and it was down to me to decide which meetings I fulfilled both at home and abroad.

A further consideration was the slickness of the speedway tracks. There was no dirt on Coventry at that time and I knew I wasn't a slick track rider. It was only after some seasons riding on the sand tracks and grass tracks in Europe that I made any adjustments to my style to accommodate different surfaces. It was all one big learning curve. Mind you I have to say that when it came to a crunch time in any race - like a last bend do-or-die attempt - the "balls or nothing time" - I'd always plump for leg-trailing out in the dirt to accomplish the manoeuvre.

So, at the end of the trials, I told the promoters that I wasn't really interested and that the European grass scene was where I wanted to be. I like to think we parted as friends though and I was most appreciative that they had given me the opportunity to have a go.

Mind you, there was one further 'opportunity' to have a go at speedway when I was in the right place at the right time and, as a result, I could well have signed for Birmingham Brummies!

I was involved in a weekend grass-track meeting during which big Arthur Browning, who was one of my opponents, dropped in to my area of the pits for a chat. Arthur was an all-round motor-cycle star who, as well as riding on the grass had made a name for himself on speedway, trials and moto-x.

"What are you doing tomorrow, Shortie?" he asked.

"Nothing much."

"Well, get yourself up to Birmingham Speedway as I'm doing a stunt for a kids' TV programme and they need some extra riders to take part in the filming."

So I went up to Perry Barr even though I didn't have a speedway bike, but fortunately Arthur said I could use one of his.

In borrowing one of Arthur's bikes, I had to make a few adjustments as he was a physical giant compared to me and I had to put my own handlebars on to be able to ride it.

In the pits I could see Arthur and Carl Askew (who was another of the main men riding for the Brummies at the time) getting their bikes ready, but at that stage I didn't know what the filming was going to involve.

We got talking and the film was going to be used on the Blue Peter TV show and basically involved some shots of riders racing and then the staging of a crash sequence. Arthur started off doing some laps on his own and then me and Carl got involved riding with him. I was getting round the track ok, considering I wasn't a speedway rider at the time, and I was happily mixing it in racing terms with Arthur and Carl. The film crew seemed happy enough with the racing action, so the afternoon finished with Arthur staging a crash-sequence on his own, skidding off on one of the bends and into the fence.

With our afternoon's 'work' completed, we were packing up our kit ready for leaving but Joe Thurley - who was the Promoter at Birmingham - came over and asked to have a word with me.

"Do you want to ride in the second half tonight?"

Well, it seemed a good opportunity as I was already at the track so I agreed, on one condition that I didn't have to ride under my own name! He thought it was a strange request, but agreed. The reason was that I didn't want anyone to know it was me (particularly if I didn't do very well!). Anyway, I did ride and I was programmed as "Harry Long."

Mind you, my anonymity didn't last too long as my 'distinctive' style was noticed by a number of the fans who'd seen me on the grass.

That would have been in 1976 - when the Brummies had just gone into the first division - with riders like Browning, Askew and Alan Grahame.

I did ok in the second half and the Brummies' promotion were quite interested in signing me, but I gave them the thumbs-down as I was still quite happy with the way things were going on the grass at the time. I did go along to a few meetings, but purely as a spectator, though I did go down into the Pits area as I knew quite a lot of the riders as mates from the grass track scene.

So, speedway and me went our separate ways and there was no interest in each other for a number of years.

This article was first published on 11th June 2012