 |
Tales from the Shale with Swindon’s Writer in Residence, Graham Cooke.
Heat four of Tales from the Shale focuses on ace track curator Gerald Richter.
During the mayhem that was the recent Swedish GP at Gothenburg, Sky Sports presenter Keith Huewen described track preparation as “the dark art”, a comment that ex World Champion Sam Ermolenko and Lee Richardson agreed whole heartedly with.
There is no doubt that here, at Swindon, we are fortunate to have one of the best track men in the business, Gerald Richter. But who is Mr Richter and what is his secret to preparing a good track?
Born in Bulawayo in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Gerald Richter found himself growing up in a family of motor sport fanatics. His father was a fan of all types of motor sports in Rhodesia and South Africa and knew all of the Southern African speedway riders.
Gerald was hooked on the sport almost immediately.
“Dad would help out in the pits and I spent the first race of my first meeting on the terraces and then joined him in the pits. I think that one race was the last time I spent time of the terraces watching a speedway meeting.”
A move from Zimbabwe to South Africa in 1972 brought Gerald into contact with Buddy Fuller who operated tracks in and near Johannesburg and it was here that Gerald really cut his teeth on track preparation.
Having learned his trade on tracks throughout the country the young Richter was ready to take on the responsibility of working with renowned track man Peter Murray at the Corobrick track near Johannesburg.
205 metres in length, the Corobrick (taken from the name of the local “Coronation Brickworks”) was a deliberate copy of the Costa Mesa track in South California. “We even went so far as to copy the kick boards. It was a great little track.”
During the mid 1980’s Gerald gained his referee’s licence and set about an extraordinary period where he not only prepared the track, he refereed the meetings and then ran the bar after the event.
“We had all of the top South African and Rhodesian riders competing at the track, including Denzil Kent, David Steen, the Prinsloo’s, Eddie Cox and Nick Floyd.”
During the late 1980’s the international brigade came for a series of meetings. Riders such as Kelvin Tatum rode on “Richter” tracks in South Africa as Gerald’s reputation as an A1 track man gained momentum.
In 1989 he took over the derelict Walkerville track about 8 miles south of Johannesburg, and set about transforming it into a proper speedway track (295 metres long) with proper facilities.
Despite it being an excellent venue, the South African authorities allocated it very few major meetings. Gerald was fast becoming disillusioned by South Africa.
As South African Speedway delegate at the FIM Conference in 1998 Gerald met with Terry Russell and in 2001 he was invited over with the prospect of becoming track curator at Sittingbourne.
Sadly the plans for Sittingbourne faltered at Planning Permission level and so Gerald was installed as track man at Arena Essex, now Lakeside.
When Terry Russell took over Swindon in 2004 one of his first jobs was to install Gerald as track curator at The Abbey Stadium.
So what, in Gerald’s estimation, makes for a good speedway track?
“First you need good staff to help you and lots of preparation. You just can’t leave a track from one week to the next and hope that it will be all right to ride on.
Being responsible for a speedway track is like no other. You find yourself hammered by riders, promoters and by the public, but you just have to take that.
“My perfect track is one that is fast and safe with possibilities for passing. Level and even, the track should be firm going into the corners but there must then be some dirt to give them grip and prevent the bikes from sliding too far.
I want to see bikes going at full speed down the straights and then having sufficient grip on the corners to allow the riders to enter into a fast, controlled slide.
Speedway is all about speed and control and it’s my job to make sure that the track gives the riders a chance to demonstrate their skills of balance and control. In a perfect world it would never rain on the day of a meeting, nor would it be baking hot before a fixture.
Sadly, you have to work with the weather in this country – there’s no point trying to work against it. So much of the job is trying to predict what the weather is going to do and then anticipating what needs to be added to the weather’s effects to make a track good for racing.
“Swindon is a particularly difficult track to deal with. It’s sheer size makes it hard to prepare and the drainage problems simply compound the difficulties, but every track is difficult and they all have their problem areas.
“Nobody sets out to prepare a bad track on purpose – when the track is bad it’s always down to outside influences. I’m lucky here because I’ve got adequate equipment and good helpers but a lot of trackmen work on their own with poor equipment – it just makes their jobs so much more difficult.
But above all, you cannot sit back and rest on your laurels. If the track is good one week there is nothing to say that it will remain so. A speedway track is like a living being – it needs to be understood and studied to get the best from it.”
“Riders, and fans, often ask why the track changes form one week to the next. Believe me, I try to keep it consistent but the main factor in everything is the weather. A speedway track is Affected by the weather probably more than any other sporting surface – it’s my job to try to ameliorate the weather’s influence, but it’s not easy.”
Gerald Richter has now turned an extremely expensive hobby in South Africa into his main job over here but it’s not his only job. In addition to preparing and overseeing the tracks at Swindon and Lakeside, Gerald is also employed by a leading supermarket chain, as a manager in a store and often works very unsocial hours.
Next time you come to Swindon and see the crouched figure behind the wheel of the yellow tractor with the South African sticker on its window, just consider this :
He’s been at the track probably since 7am, often before that. He’s worked without a break right through to the start of the meeting. He’s kept the track in some sort of order (the aim is that heat 15 conditions should be close to those experienced in heat 1) throughout the meeting.
While you are driving home of enjoying a pint in the bar, he and his team will be “putting the track to bed”, taking down air fences and repairing the track. When you are tucked up in bed he will be tidying the area around the pits before locking up the stadium.
It being the early hours of Friday morning, he will then drive over 130 miles to Lakeside and catch three or four hours in a caravan at the back of the stadium.
Up at 7am, he will work with his track staff through until midnight (Lakeside’s matches in 2008 are predominantly on a Friday night). If he’s not too knackered he may then drive back to his home in Swindon.
Saturday morning and he will be at The Abbey to supervise the weekend work before leaving at lunchtime to go and put in a full day’s work at the supermarket. Monday and Tuesday will see him either working at Blundson, Lakeside or at the supermarket. Wednesday is a preparation day for the next week and on Thursday he starts work again at Swindon at 7am.
And before you mention that this is only during the season from March to October, the work of a speedway track curator is definitely a 12 month year.
It’s a mad life and it can’t be good for the health. So why does he do it? He does it primarily because he loves the sport and because, when he receives even a little praise, it makes all the difference and makes those wet and cold days’ work all worth while.
So the next time that you feel the need to hurl abuse at a member of the track staff during a speedway meeting just take a moment to appreciate how he feels because if you feel upset, he will be feeling one hundred times more upset.
The track is a reflection of the people who work on it and with it. Gerald Richter is a proud man who is mortally wounded when something goes wrong on the track.
I’m just a hack, a volunteer who stayed and stayed and much of it remains a “dark art” for me after three years working on it.
Had it not been for Gerald Richter and his able assistant Rod “Punch” Ford I would have retreated to my place on the terraces long ago. Together they make a remarkable team – both are remarkable men and Swindon are very lucky to have them working at the Abbey.
|
