Lejonen (the Lions) is a
motorcycle speedway club from
Gislaved
Gislaved () is a locality and the seat of Gislaved Municipality, Jönköping County
Jönköping County ( sv, Jönköpings län) is a county or '' län'' in southern Sweden. It borders the counties of Halland, Västra Götaland, Östergötl ...
in Sweden, who compete in the
Elitserien. 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) in 2007 and defeated
Valsarna in the
play-off
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
final to gain promotion to the
Elitserien for 2008.
During the winter of 2007-08 the track underwent major changes to accommodate
Elitserien racing and the club announced the signing of
Nicki Pedersen
Nicki Pedersen (born 2 April 1977) is a Danish motorcycle speedway rider. He has won the World Championship in 2003, 2007 and 2008 and was a World Cup winner with Denmark in 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2014. His brother, R ...
, 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.
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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.
Teams
2023 team
Previous teams
2017 team
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2022 team
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Previous seasons
References
{{Swedish speedway teams
Swedish speedway teams
Sport in Jönköping County