Lejonen (the Lions) is a
motorcycle speedway
Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...
club from
Gislaved
Gislaved () is a locality and the seat of Gislaved Municipality, Jönköping County, Sweden with 10,231 inhabitants in 2017, out of a municipal total of nearly 30,000.
Sports
The following sports clubs are located in Gislaved:
* Gislaveds IS
G ...
in Sweden, who compete in the
Elitserien
Elitserien (literally, "the Elite League") is the name of several Swedish nationwide sport leagues. In many sports, Elitserien is the highest league, with the second highest named Allsvenskan.
Elitserien leagues at present:
* Elitserien (badmint ...
. Their home track is at the
OnePartnerGroup Arena which is Sweden's oldest track still in use.
The club are two times
champions of Sweden.
History
In December 1929 Gislaved Motorclub was formed and by 1931 the track was built. The track was originally wide and long but in 1936 it was widened to and during the 1980s the inside edge of the track was moved and the length was reduced to . In 1963 the Lejonen team began racing in Division Three and became the champions in 1965.
Lejonen finished at the top of Division Two (the
Allsvenskan
Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...
) in 2007 and defeated
Valsarna in the
play-off final to gain promotion to the
Elitserien
Elitserien (literally, "the Elite League") is the name of several Swedish nationwide sport leagues. In many sports, Elitserien is the highest league, with the second highest named Allsvenskan.
Elitserien leagues at present:
* Elitserien (badmint ...
for 2008.
During the winter of 2007-08 the track underwent major changes to accommodate
Elitserien
Elitserien (literally, "the Elite League") is the name of several Swedish nationwide sport leagues. In many sports, Elitserien is the highest league, with the second highest named Allsvenskan.
Elitserien leagues at present:
* Elitserien (badmint ...
racing and the club announced the signing of
Nicki Pedersen, the 2007
World Champion
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
.
The club became champions of Sweden for two successive years in 2008 and 2009 after they won the
Swedish Speedway Team Championship
The Swedish Speedway Team Championship is the team championship of speedway in Sweden.
Season by season
History
The Championship was introduced in 1950.
In 1982 the Championship was renamed with a new league called the Elitserien being intro ...
.
[
]
Smålänningarna and Team Dalej
Smålänningarna compete in the Allsvenskan and Team Dalej compete in the third tier (division 1), they are a collaboration between Dackarna and Lejonen allowing less senior riders the opportunity to race. The collaboration started in 2020 and the Smålänningarna name came from and old team that had riders from Småland
Småland () is a historical province () in southern Sweden.
Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means ''Small Lands''. The Latinized fo ...
.
Teams
2023 team
Previous teams
2017 team
*
*
*
*
*
2022 team
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Previous seasons
References
{{Swedish speedway teams
Swedish speedway teams
Sport in Jönköping County