History of motorcycle speedway in Sweden

In the 1950s motorcycle speedway became one of Swedens most popular team sports where each fixture often was viewed by audiences between 10000 and 20000 people.^[1]^[2] The Swedish speedway league was founded a few years earlier in 1948 and was inspired by British speedway including adopting the British teams nicknames in Swedish versions. For instance the Norrköping team became Vargarna (English: "The Wolves"), the Eskilstuna team became Smederna (English: "The Blacksmiths") and the club became (English: "The Wasps"). As popularity of the sport grew there were many new clubs founded all around Sweden and during the 1950s more than 30 different clubs competed at least one season in the league system.^[3] Unfortunately many of these new teams were short lived and only survived a few years but one can still find some of those new teams of the 1950s in today's Elitserien.

League tables of 1950[]

This year changed name to Dackarna and changed name to
Division 1

Pos	Club	Pts	Comment
1		21	Swedish champions
2	Vargarna	19
3		13
4	Indianerna	12
5		8
6		7
7	Dackarna	4

Division 2 A

Pos	Club	Pts
1	Piraterna	10
2		8
3		4
4		2

Division 2 B

Pos	Club	Pts	Comment
1		7
2		7
3		6
4		4
5		4
6		2

Division 2 C

Pos	Club	Pts
1	Vetlanda	7
2		1
3		0
4		0

League tables of 1951[]

Division 1

Pos	Club	Pts	Comment
1	Vargarna	22	Swedish champions
2	Smederna	14
3	Dackarna	12
4		11
5	Indianerna	10
6		8
7		7	Relegation to division 2

Division 2 East

Pos	Club	Pts	Comment
1		18	Promotion to division 1
2	Piraterna	16
3		9
4		8
5		6
6		3

Division 2 West

Pos	Pts	Comment
1	16	Promotion to division 1
2	12
3	12
4	10
5	8
6	2

League tables of 1952[]

This year changed name to , changed name to and changed name to
Division 1

Pos	Club	Pts	Comment
1		23	Swedish champions
2	Smederna	21
3	Indianerna	18
4	Vargarna	16
5		14
6		10
7	Dackarna	10
8		0	Relegation to division 2

Division 2

Pos	Pts	Comment
1	20	Promotion to division 1
2	12
3	11
4	8
5	7
6	2

League tables of 1953[]

Division 1

Pos	Club	Pts	Comment
1	Vargarna	25	Swedish champions
2	Indianerna	18
3	Smederna	16
4		14
5		13
6		12
7		10
8	Dackarna	4

Division 2

Pos	Pts	Comment
1	6	Promotion to division 1
2	6
3	0

League tables of 1954[]

Division 1

Pos	Club	Pts	Comment
1	Vargarna	26	Swedish champions
2		22
3	Indianerna	20
4	Smederna	18
5		16
6		15
7		12
8	Dackarna	12
9		2

League tables of 1955[]

Division 1

Pos	Club	Pts	Comment
1		18	Swedish champions
2		13
3		10
4	Dackarna	10
5	Indianerna	5
6		4

League tables of 1956[]

Division 1

Pos	Club	Pts	Comment
1		16	Swedish champions
2	Dackarna	15
3		15
4		8
5	Indianerna	6
6		0

League tables of 1957[]

Division 1

Pos	Club	Pts	Comment
1	Dackarna	22	Swedish champions
2		16
3		14
4		13
5	Indianerna	8
6		7
7	Vargarna	4

League tables of 1958[]

Division 1

Pos	Club	Pts	Comment
1	Dackarna	14	Swedish champions
2		14
3		10
4		10
5	Vargarna	6
6		2

Division 2

Pos	Club	Pts
1		12
2		10,5
3	Dackarna B	10,5
4		7

League tables of 1959[]

Division 1

Pos	Club	Pts	Comment
1	Dackarna	14	Swedish champions
2		10
3		8
4	Vargarna	7
5		1

Division 2

Pos	Club	Pts
1		12
2	Dackarna B	12
3		9
4		9
5		8

References[]

^ Vargarna Speedway (2007). "Vargarna Speedway" (in Swedish). Vargarna Speedway. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved August 30, 2007.
^ kaparna.nu. "Slottsskogsvallen -Kaparna Speedway" (in Swedish). kaparna.nu. Retrieved August 30, 2007.
^ speedway.org. "History: Speedway and Longtrack". speedway.org. Retrieved August 30, 2007.

[var-1] Vargarna Speedway (2007). "Vargarna Speedway" (in Swedish). Vargarna Speedway. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved August 30, 2007.

[kar-2] rna.nu. "Slottsskogsvallen -Kaparna Speedway" (in Swedish). kaparna.nu. Retrieved August 30, 2007.

[speed-3] speedway.org. "History: Speedway and Longtrack". speedway.org. Retrieved August 30, 2007.

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