Unia Tarnów 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 anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...

club from

Tarnów Tarnów () is a city in southeastern Poland with 105,922 inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of 269,000 inhabitants. The city is situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999. From 1975 to 1998, it was the capital of the Tarnów ...

in Poland. The team compete in the

Polish Speedway Second League The Polish Speedway Second League or Liga.2 żużlowa is the third division of motorcycle speedway in Poland. It is below the Ekstraliga and the Polish Speedway First League The Polish Speedway First League or Liga.1 żużlowa is the second ...

(2. Liga). and have won the

Team Speedway Polish Championship The Team Speedway Polish Championship (Polish: ''Drużynowe Mistrzostwa Polski, DMP'') is an annual speedway event held each year in different Polish clubs organized by the Polish Motor Union (PZM) since 1948. The team winning the league is awarded ...

three times.

History

1957 to 1989

The club was founded 1957 as a section of a multi-sports club of the same name, which was founded in 1928. It would not be until 2001 that the club became a separate entity but retained the same historic name. The first honour was winning the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...

Zygmunt Pytko Zygmunt Pytko (1937–1996) also spelt Zygmunt Pytka was an international speedway rider from Poland. Speedway career Pytko was the champion of Poland, winning the Polish Individual Speedway Championship The Individual Speedway Polish Champ ...

later became the Polish champion in

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

. The team spent most of the 1970s and 1980s either battling relegation in the first division or challenging promotion in the second division but in general there was little in the way of success.

1990 to 1999

The club gained promotion in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

and made a statement of intent in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

by signing one of the world's leading riders

Tony Rickardsson Tony Rickardsson (born on 17 August 1970) is a Swedish former professional motorcycle speedway rider. He competed in the Speedway World Championships from 1989 to 2006. Rickardsson is notable for winning six Speedway World Championship titles in 1 ...

. The impact was instant and they won a silver medal in the Polish Championship. However, not even Rickardsson could save them from relegation in 1996.

2000 to 2015

When the Ekstraliga was introduced in 2000, the team were competing in the 2. Liga but in

2001 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, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

the sealed promotion and began to build in form. Janusz Kołodziej and

Tomasz Gollob Tomasz Robert Gollob (; born 11 April 1971 in Bydgoszcz, Poland) is a former Polish motorcycle speedway rider. He appeared in every Speedway Grand Prix series between its inaugural season in 1995 and 2013. His brother Jacek is also a speedway rid ...

were signed and Rickardsson returned for the

2004 Polish speedway season The 2004 Polish Speedway season was the 2004 season of motorcycle speedway in Poland. Individual Polish Individual Speedway Championship The 2004 Individual Speedway Polish Championship final was held on 15 August at Częstochowa. Golden ...

. The team won the gold medal for the first time in their history and then successfully defended their title in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

. Three Unia riders became consecutive Polish champions, Kołodziej was champion in 2005, Gollob in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

and

Rune Holta Rune Holta (born 29 August 1973 in Stavanger, Norway) is a speedway rider. He grew up in Randaberg Norway, but has been a Polish citizen since 2002, allowing him to represent Poland in international competitions and was a member of their Speedway ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

. Gollob and Holta also won the 2007 pairs championship. Further success came from 2012 to 2016 as the club won the gold medal in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, the pairs in 2013 and three consecutive bronze medals in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

and

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Maciej Janowski Maciej Janowski (born 6 August 1991 in Wrocław, Polandwww.janowskiracing.com
Retrieved on 2008-07-04.< ...

also won the 2013 Golden Helmet.

2016 to present

Since 2015, the team have experienced mediocrity with just one 1.Liga title success in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Teams

2023 team

Tero Aarnio Tero Kalevi Aarnio (born 17 April 1984) is a Finnish motorcycle speedway rider. Career Aarnio was a member of Finland team at 2007 Speedway World Cup. This led to his signing for Berwick Bandits for the 2008 and 2009 seasons. He then joined Sc ...

René Bach René Bach (born 7 June 1990, in Hjordkær, Rødekro)www.speedway.com.pl
Retrieved on 2009-04-18. is a Danis ...

* Oskar Bober *

William Drejer William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

* Mateusz Gzyl * Kenneth Hansen * Jan Heleniak *

Matic Ivačič Matic Ivačič (born 8 September 1993) is a motorcycle speedway rider from Slovenia. He is a four time national champion. Honours In 2020, Ivačič became the Slovenian National Champion after winning the Slovenian Individual Speedway Cha ...

* Daniel Klima * Ernest Koza * Richard Lawson * Patryk Rolnicki * Piotr Pioro * Pawel Pikul * Piotr Swiercz

Previous teams

2022 team * Kenneth Hansen * Peter Ljung *

* Oskar Bober * Patryk Rolnicki *

* Piotr Swiercz

Notable riders

Honours

Team Polish Champions *Gold: 3 (2004, 2005, 2012) *Silver: 1 (1994) *Bronze: 2 (2013, 2014) Pair Polish Champion *Gold: 2 (2007, 2013) *Silver: 2 (2004, 2009) Individual Polish Champion *Gold: 5 (1967, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2013) *Silver: 3 (2005, 2007, 2010) *Bronze: 3 (2005, 2009, 2013)

References

{{Polish speedway teams Speedway teams in Poland Sport in Tarnów