- Joined
- Oct 24, 2017
- Messages
- 1,050
- Reaction score
- 20
Being polish means you eat lots of potatoes and most likely there is someone who you know well and is a speedwayhead. Its barely popular worldwide now, but some decades ago it was a pretty well known sport.
So if you just want to see what it's all about scroll down till the end of this post for video with best heats and some serious crash. Also - excuse my English, trying hard to make it readable.
Speedway is a motorcycle sport involving four riders competing on an oval circuit. There are some competitions with six riders, but it's rather some exotic thing than usual set-up in serious contests.
This is the track of my team Unia Leszno, 2017 champions of Poland. I usually sit on the right side of the little building (referees place) next to the seats. It's the first corner where most of the action happens and with a great view. Plus riders after finish look at your seats first.
The motorcycle is a 500cc bike without gears and breaks. It accelerates in ca 3s 0-60mph and goes maximum of ca. 80mph. Which is pretty crazy considering they have no brakes. The bike cannot be lighter than Colby... I mean than 170 lbs. Its mostly for the riders safety.
The sport is currently not very popular. For many reasons. In the 50's and 60's it was a quite known sport never went full mainstream but still attracted lots of people for league games in countries like UK.
The best league is Polish Ekstraliga. It's the best paid league, most professional with great media and lots of fans (average 8-10k people per meeting). First four teams are going into playoffs. Apart of the polish league there is a pro league in Sweden, Dennmark and UK. All of them rather poor. But.... since not many people are professional riders, same people compete in multiple leagues. Same guy can go on Sunday in Poland, Wednesday in Sweden, Thursday in UK and on Saturday compete in the speedway grand prix. So yeah.... they ride a lot.
Riders get paid per point, sponsors and contract fees. Best make per season up to 400-500k dollars. But very few. Riders needs to pay for the gear, mechanics and other staff members.
The scoring goes like this: 1 place 3 points, 2nd 2, 3rd 1 and 4th 0. 15 heats. 13 heats scheduled. In 2 last heats riders are being selected by the manager based on their performance.
Riders - as mentioned are competing very often. They compete in leagues and other tournaments. The most important is Speedway GP so the world championship. Most riders come from Poland, Sweden, UK, Dennmark, Russia and Australia (pretty dope rides). Champion from last year is Kason Doyle (Australia). The World Champions are Poland from 2017. Best World Pair is UK from 2018.
Injuries are of course a major issue as you can imagine. Riders are tough motherfuckers and ride with broken ribs, arms, feet and stuff like that. My colleague worked in the hospital in Leszno and told me that once they brought one of the riders after a serious crash. The doctor who was being in charge this evening was new in this hospital and said to the rider that he needs to rest for 6 weeks due to some broken bones. 3 hours later the owner of the team walks into the hospital and say that the rider is flying tomorrow to Austria for a surgery and he'll ride in 2 weeks... and he did.
Here is an accident of Balinski in Leszno. As far as I remember he was riding next week, for sure he was ready for the next home game. I saw this accident live and never heard such a silence in the stadium.
Here are some dope heats:
So if you just want to see what it's all about scroll down till the end of this post for video with best heats and some serious crash. Also - excuse my English, trying hard to make it readable.
Speedway is a motorcycle sport involving four riders competing on an oval circuit. There are some competitions with six riders, but it's rather some exotic thing than usual set-up in serious contests.
This is the track of my team Unia Leszno, 2017 champions of Poland. I usually sit on the right side of the little building (referees place) next to the seats. It's the first corner where most of the action happens and with a great view. Plus riders after finish look at your seats first.
The motorcycle is a 500cc bike without gears and breaks. It accelerates in ca 3s 0-60mph and goes maximum of ca. 80mph. Which is pretty crazy considering they have no brakes. The bike cannot be lighter than Colby... I mean than 170 lbs. Its mostly for the riders safety.
The sport is currently not very popular. For many reasons. In the 50's and 60's it was a quite known sport never went full mainstream but still attracted lots of people for league games in countries like UK.
The best league is Polish Ekstraliga. It's the best paid league, most professional with great media and lots of fans (average 8-10k people per meeting). First four teams are going into playoffs. Apart of the polish league there is a pro league in Sweden, Dennmark and UK. All of them rather poor. But.... since not many people are professional riders, same people compete in multiple leagues. Same guy can go on Sunday in Poland, Wednesday in Sweden, Thursday in UK and on Saturday compete in the speedway grand prix. So yeah.... they ride a lot.
Riders get paid per point, sponsors and contract fees. Best make per season up to 400-500k dollars. But very few. Riders needs to pay for the gear, mechanics and other staff members.
The scoring goes like this: 1 place 3 points, 2nd 2, 3rd 1 and 4th 0. 15 heats. 13 heats scheduled. In 2 last heats riders are being selected by the manager based on their performance.
Riders - as mentioned are competing very often. They compete in leagues and other tournaments. The most important is Speedway GP so the world championship. Most riders come from Poland, Sweden, UK, Dennmark, Russia and Australia (pretty dope rides). Champion from last year is Kason Doyle (Australia). The World Champions are Poland from 2017. Best World Pair is UK from 2018.
Injuries are of course a major issue as you can imagine. Riders are tough motherfuckers and ride with broken ribs, arms, feet and stuff like that. My colleague worked in the hospital in Leszno and told me that once they brought one of the riders after a serious crash. The doctor who was being in charge this evening was new in this hospital and said to the rider that he needs to rest for 6 weeks due to some broken bones. 3 hours later the owner of the team walks into the hospital and say that the rider is flying tomorrow to Austria for a surgery and he'll ride in 2 weeks... and he did.
Here is an accident of Balinski in Leszno. As far as I remember he was riding next week, for sure he was ready for the next home game. I saw this accident live and never heard such a silence in the stadium.
Here are some dope heats:
Last edited:
