Dick Barrie writes:

As the bulk of the track-staff (pushers, rakers and even the announcer) at Les Whaley’s Hampden Park operation came from the ranks of cycle-speedway riders (Hampden Hawks and Kingsway Knights) Neil was quickly embraced by the speedway culture.

When the Tigers roared off to darkest Lanarkshire, he followed on, becoming a senior staff-member at Coatbridge and even-more involved at the time of track installation at the first Blantyre circuit, helping Bluey Scott and Tom Shirra (the duo who contributed most labour and expertise to that process) and learning “on the job” exactly what was involved in building a speedway circuit inside a stadium facility.….

It was Neil who suggested a radio microphone could be used to the benefit of a speedway presentation, and under his guidance the very first such system was introduced to British speedway at Blantyre in the autumn of 1977.    Hindsight suggests this has not always proved to be as entertaining as it could be, as too much still depends on the mouth involved.

By the time the speedway team “louped over the wall” to Craighead Park, Neil was acting as Clerk of the Course on race-nights, as well as having been involved in the transferring of equipment between the Blantyre circuits.    Again, although Alastair Craig and Kenny McKinna operated the heavy plant as the track was being laid, Neil led the volunteers who laboured long and hard in building the safety-fence and other facilities.

Such was the respect Neil built among the British speedway fraternity, he was given an “access all areas” pass by the BSPA for the 1985 World Final, when he was instrumental in boosting the Odsal public-address system during the meeting, and famously waved through into the pits by security officers who were at the same time turning away a former World Champion!

His leadership qualities came to the fore during the Tigers catastrophic “wilderness year” at Workington, when it was only his determination that allowed several of the more-eventful meetings at Derwent Park to even begin, let alone run to a finish, but even Neil had to give best in the face of the promotion’s inept blundering and mismanagement -- which eventually resulted in the club being flung out of league speedway.

Make no mistake – Glasgow Speedway at that point was a dead duck, except that Neil Grant refused to accept the verdict, and with the permission of Jimmy Beaton (a largely-absentee owner) set about the task of saving the sport for the city.

Neil met and worked with the Shawfield ownership, addressed the Council’s planning requirements and set up a series of vital fund-raising meetings at which fans dug deep to provide funding for the project.     Along with Dick Barrie he travelled to the BSPA conference at the end of 1987 to plead for another chance – grudgingly granted by a fairly narrow majority, albeit only on the proviso that the previous promoters were kept well clear of the project!

Neil masterminded the return of the Tigers to the city in 1988, directing the construction of the circuit within Shawfield in a startling timeframe of eleven short weeks from the cutting of the first sod on January 25^th to the tapes going up on April 15^th, 1988 in front of 7,996 spectators – a miracle achieved with virtually no financial support other than the proceeds of regular fund-raising evenings and little outside labour other than a volunteer force of fans.

His work was recognised by the BSPA at the end of 1988, when the league's promoters awarded him the title of "Promoter of the Year" and gave his Shawfield creation another trophy for "Stadium of the Year".   He was just 32 years of age.  His reward from the Tigers’ by-now envious ownership was however the sack, and his marvellous, probably-unparalleled achievements being almost-totally airbrushed from the club’s history.

Despite his heavy involvement in speedway, Neil also found time to attain an honours degree at Glasgow University in Electronics & Electrical Engineering and, following successful post-graduate work, he took up full-time employment with Pilkington Optronics (formerly Barr & Stroud Ltd) where he led a major defence project and championed the concept of software engineering, reaching the level of Development Manager.

Later he took up positions at Yarrow Shipbuilders (Technical Director), Marconi Marine (Operations Director) and BAE Systems (Planning Director).

Neil’s next move was to become Operations Director for Coherent Scotland Ltd,   There he led the creation of a major manufacturing capability for this hi-tech laser company at Glasgow Science Park, before finally in 2005 he moved to take up the position of Operations Director with Babcock Naval Services who manage the Faslane Naval Base and Rosyth Dockyard.

He was also this year serving as a non-executive director of learndirect scotland, a member of the Court of Glasgow Caledonian University, panel chairman for Prince Charles’ Scottish Youth Business Trust, a Visiting Professor at Strathclyde University and a member of the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Board.

Nicky Nicolson wrote