Orzeł Łódź (''Eagle Lodz'') is a Polish

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 clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

team based in

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

who currently race in the

Polish Speedway First League The Polish Speedway First League or Ekstraliga 2 (formerly the Liga.1 żużlowa is the second division of motorcycle speedway in Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Balti ...

(1. Liga). The club's full name is H. Skrzydlewska Eagle Lodz.

Stadium

The club hold their meetings at the Moto Arena Łódź, which opened in July 2018.

History of speedway in Łódź

Tramwajarz Łódź and DKS Łódź

Speedway in Łódź began in 1948 with two clubs called Tramwajarz Łódź (tram drivers) and DKS Łódź. Both Tramwajarz and DKS competed in the inaugural

1948 Polish speedway season The 1948 Polish Speedway season was the 1948 season of motorcycle speedway in Poland. Individual Polish Individual Speedway Championship The individual event was cancelled. Start list Kraków, October 24 *First league ** Jan Wąsikowski – ...

. Three years later the club moved to

Bytom Bytom (Polish pronunciation: ; Silesian language, Silesian: ''Bytōm, Bytōń'', ) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. Located in the Silesian Voivodeship, the city is 7 km northwest of Katowice, the regional capital. It is one ...

and changed their name to Ogniwo, before returning a year later. In

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

, the club became Sparta before but changed again to its original name of Tramwajarz before the club disbanded in 1964. Tadeusz Kołeczek of Ogniwo Łódź finished second in

Polish Individual Speedway Championship The Individual Speedway Polish Championship ( Polish: ''Indywidualne Mistrzostwa Polski, IMP'') is an annual speedway event held each year organized by the Polish Motor Union (PZM) since 1932. The current Polish Champion is Maciej Janowski, w ...

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 ...

, Włodzimierz Szwendrowski of Sparta Łódź, won the title in

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

Gwardia Łódź

Gwardia Łódź was formed in 1967 and ran for 14 years until 1980; they stayed in the second division and often languished in the lower half.

JAG Speedway Club

After 15 years without speedway in the city a team was formed with the name JAG or Holiday Club Łódź. They competed from 1995 to 1998.

ŁTŻ Łódź

In 1999, ŁTŻ Łódź joined the speedway league and when the Ekstraliga was introduced in

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

, ŁTŻ Łódź were in the 1. Liga. In

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

they were relegated to the 2. Liga.

TŻ Łódź

From 2002 until 2005 Towarzystwo Żużlowe Łódź competed in the leagues.

Orzeł Łódź

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, the Skrzydlewski family founded Orzeł Łódź. The club won the 2. Liga title in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

. In

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, the team topped the 1. Liga table to complete their best season for many years. They lost in the play off final to

Lokomotiv Daugavpils Lokomotīve Daugavpils, also known as Lokomotiv Daugavpils, is a Latvian motorcycle speedway team based in Daugavpils who race in the Polish Speedway Second League (2. Liga). Stadium Stadium Lokomotīve (former name Spīdveja centrs) is loc ...

but the Latvian club were unable to be promoted. Orzeł declined a move to the Ekstraliga, despite winning 16 out of 18 matches that season. In July 2018, the team moved to a new stadium called the Moto Arena Łódź.

Previous teams

2022 team *

Brady Kurtz Brady Kurtz (born 27 September 1996) is a motorcycle speedway rider from Australia. Biography Born in Cowra, New South Wales. Brady's older brother Todd Kurtz is a fellow Speedway rider. Brady got his first break into British Speedway ridi ...

Luke Becker Luke Becker (born 11 February 1999) is a motorcycle speedway rider from the United States. Career Becker began his British career riding for Wolverhampton Wolves in 2019. Unable to ride during 2020 because of Covid-19 cancelled season, he conti ...

Norbert Kościuch Norbert Krzysztof Kościuch (born 28 April 1984) is a speedway rider from Poland. Speedway career He rode in the top tier of British Speedway riding for the Peterborough Panthers during the 2013 Elite League speedway season. He began his ca ...

* Marcin Nowak *

Niels Kristian Iversen Niels Kristian Trochmann Iversen (, born 20 June 1982 in Esbjerg, Denmark) is an international motorcycle speedway rider. He is a seven times national champion of Denmark and was part of the Danish teams that won the Speedway World Cup in 2006 ...

Mateusz Dul Mateusz is a Polish given name, equivalent to Hebrew names Matityahu and Matthew, meaning "gift of Yahweh". List Notable people with the name include: B–H * Mateusz Bąk (born 1983), Polish football goalkeeper * Mateusz Banasiuk (born 1985), P ...

* Nikodem Bartoch * Aleksander Grygolec 2023 team *

Tomasz Gapiński Tomasz Gapiński (born 8 July 1982 in Piła, Poland) is an international motorcycle speedway rider. Career Gapiński rode in the 2007 Speedway Grand Prix of Europe. He won the Team Polish Champion titles in 1999 and 2006. Gapiński missed ...

* Timo Lahti *

Jakub Jamróg Jakub Jamróg (born 24 June 1991) is a Polish speedway rider. Career Born in Tarnów, he began his career with local team Unia Tarnów who he rode for between 2009 and 2012, before signing for Orzeł Łódź in 2013. In 2015, he won the A ...

Pontus Aspgren Pontus Aspgren (born 15 March 1991) is a Swedish motorcycle speedway rider. Speedway career He rode in the top tier of British Speedway for the Wolverhampton Wolves during the 2012 Elite League speedway season. The same year, he was part of the S ...

* Tom Brennan *

Nick Škorja Nick Škorja (born 28 July 1998) is a Slovenian motorcycle speedway rider. Career Škorja appeared twice as a track reserve in the 2016 Speedway Grand Prix and once at the 2017 Speedway Grand Prix and 2018 Speedway Grand Prix. He has fini ...

* Mateusz Tonder *

* Jacob Sroka * Aleksander Grygolec

Notable riders

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orzel Lodz Speedway teams in Poland Sports clubs and teams in Łódź