VALE: GEOFF GROCOTT (1942 – 2026)
By Dennis Newlyn
Former Australian Sidecar Champion Geoff Grocott died November 9 after a long illness.
Geoff was aged 84.
He passed away in Mackay Hospital, North Queensland. He was the kind of man who held the value of common decency very highly in everyday life.
He leaves behind a speedway career that reflects a wonderful legacy of tenacity and determination, with a will to win that in later years took him to the top of the sport.
This came only after many earlier frustrating years of trying to make the grade, phoning Empire Speedway promoter John Sherwood every Monday morning in an attempt just to get on the programme for racing Saturday night at the hallowed Sydney Showground. Even just as a reserve!
Those days were tough, in his bid to get a start, but it instilled in Geoff a “never give up” attitude – that also reflected a philosophy in his daily life as well.
It was testimony of his later years when he operated GP Motorcycles in Sydney’s Villawood western suburb. This was a not only a motorcycle shop for the general public – but it was also a speedway shop where you could buy the latest model Jawa speedway bike. Geoff helped many in their career paths at that famous shop over the years. It was where speedway bike people gathered – a genuine hub for the two and three-wheel speedway scene in Sydney back in the ‘seventies.
The rise to speedway stardom came for Geoff after some frustrating years in the Sidecar division. He wanted to be more competitive, he worked hard at it, but what was the answer?
A Kawasaki 500cc engine.
Well, that was not the complete answer to begin with, but when Geoff fitted a 750cc Kawasaki engine into his Sidecar frame, the sky was the limit! The extra 250cc of grunt gave him a missile on three wheels!
His career took off like gangbusters . . . and he went all the way to the top of the pile.
He won the 1972 Australian Sidecar Championship with Warren Sullivan in the chair at the Sydney Showground – the very track where years earlier he was considered not even good enough to get on the programme!
The Kawasaki not only did its job – but opened the door to what became known in Australian Sidecar racing as the “Japanese invasion.”
Everyone wanted a Japanese motorcycle engine 750cc capacity to replace the very ageing and now worn out HRD Vincent with spare parts by the ‘seventies very scarce for the tried and proven warrior workhorse of speedway Sidecar racing.
Geoff Grocott was the innovator and instigator of a transformation unlike anything ever attempted previously.
That’s the legacy this great man leaves behind in his speedway career – that in later years saw him become a very competent journalist as a regular columnist in Peter White’s Speedway World newspaper.
Geoff Grocott, more than anything else, was a bloody good bloke who worked hard all his life in several different business initiatives. He was a very knowledgeable person, always good for an enjoyable chat, and just a very decent human being.
VALE: GEOFF GROCOTT (1942 – 2026)
