GKM Grudziądz 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

Grudziądz Grudziądz (, ) is a city in northern Poland, with 92,552 inhabitants (2021). Located on the Vistula River, it lies within the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and is the fourth-largest city in its province. Grudziądz is one of the oldest citie ...

. They race at the 8,000-capacity Grudziądz Speedway Stadium. The team currently competes in the Ekstraliga (the highest division) and have won the bronze medal in 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. In 2000, the First Division was r ...

once (as of 2022).

History

1948 to 1950

The club's predecessor was Olimpia Grudziądz, which 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 – ...

and won the bronze medal. The Olimpia motorcycle club had been established in 1924. In

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...

, they competed as Olimpia-Unia Grudziądz and in

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 ...

as Unia Grudziądz. The 1950 season would be the last season for the team for nearly three decades.

1977 to 1994

The current club was founded in 1976 as GSŻ (Grudziądzka Sekcja Żużlowa). Speedway returned to Grudziądz during the

1977 Polish speedway season The 1977 Polish Speedway season was the 1977 season of motorcycle speedway in Poland. Individual Polish Individual Speedway Championship The 1977 Individual Speedway Polish Championship final was held on 22 July at Gorzów. Golden Helm ...

as GSŻ Grudziądz that entered the Second division. The team was consisted mainly of riders from Stal KS Toruń that had failed to make the Torun first team. In

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

, the team was renamed to GKM Grudziądz, which stands for Grudziądzki Klub Motocyklowy ("Grudziądz Motorcycling Club"). For 18 years the team remained in the second division starved of any success.

1995 to 2001

The club finally experienced the first league in

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

after gaining promotion in

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

but unfortunately suffered immediate relegation despite the signing of

Billy Hamill William Gordon Hamill (born 23 May 1970) is an American international motorcycle speedway rider. He is a former Speedway World Champion, winning the title in 1996 and earned 29 caps for the United States national speedway team. Career Earl ...

, who would become the world champion the same year. However, the team were performing much better than in previous years and won their first honour by 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 ...

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

; Hamill spearheaded the team and was supported by Hungarian

Zoltán Adorján Zoltán Adorján (born 15 November 1961 in Debrecen, Hungary) is former international motorcycle speedway rider.Bamford, R. & Shailes, G. (2002). ''A History of the World Speedway Championship''. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. He is a 13 times Hun ...

. Following the creation of the Ekstraliga in 2000 and the reorganisation of the leagues, Grudziądz found themselves in the Polish 1.Liga and at the end of the 2001 season the club was liquidated.

2002 to 2012

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

, speedway quickly returned with a team called GTŻ Grudziądz but the team were relegated to 2.Liga. However, they began their recovery by winning 2.Liga on 2003. In 2012, the club won a bronze medal in the

Polish Pairs Speedway Championship The Polish Pairs Speedway Championship ( Polish: ''Mistrzostwa Polski Par Klubowych, MPPK'') is an annual speedway event held each year in different Polish clubs organized by the Polish Motor Union (PZM) since 1974. The participating teams are dr ...

2013 to present

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, the club was renamed GKM Grudziądz SA. In 2015 and 2016, they competed in the Ekstraliga by default (due to the financial misfortune of other clubs) and have remained in the top division since (as of 2023).

Przemysław Pawlicki Przemysław Pawlicki (born 5 September 1991)''Świat Żużla'', No 1 (77) 2009, pages 14-15 is a motorcycle speedway rider from Poland. Career Pawlicki passed his speedway license (''Licencja "Ż"'') in 2008, as a 16-year-old. On 20 July 20 ...

and

Krzysztof Kasprzak Krzysztof Kasprzak (; born 18 July 1984 in Leszno, Poland) is a Polish international motorcycle speedway rider, who became World Under-21 Champion in 2005 and won the silver medal during the 2014 Speedway Grand Prix. He also won five World te ...

won the Pairs championship in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Previous teams

2022 team *

Seweryn Orgacki Seweryn may refer to: * Seweryn Berson (1858–1917), Polish lawyer and composer * Seweryn Bialer (1926–2019), emeritus professor of political science at Columbia University, expert on the Communist parties of the Soviet Union and Poland * Sewery ...

Frederik Jakobsen Frederik Jakobsen (born 1 May 1998) is a motorcycle speedway rider from Denmark. Career In 2018, Jakobsen rode in the top tier of British Speedway, riding for the Poole Pirates in the SGB Premiership 2018. He was a finalist in the 2018 and 2 ...

Kacper Pludra Kacper Pludra (born 21 August 2002) is an international motorcycle speedway rider from Poland. Career At the end of the 2021 season, Unia Leszno sold him to Grudziądz Pludra's breakthrough year was in 2022, when he won the silver medal in t ...

* Wiktor Rafalski * Norbert Krakowiak *

Nicki Pedersen Nicki Pedersen (born 2 April 1977) is a Danish motorcycle speedway rider. He is a three time world champion having won the World Championship in 2003, 2007 and 2008. He has also won the World Cup with Denmark in 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2014. Car ...

2023 team *

Max Fricke Max Fricke (born 29 March 1996) is an Australian speedway rider. He is a World team champion, three time Australian champion and four times Australian Under-21 Champion. Career Fricke competed in junior levels of motocross and speedway in A ...

* /

Gleb Chugunov Gleb Sergeevich Chugunov (born 17 December 1999) is an international speedway rider from Russia, who rides on a Polish licence. Speedway career Chugunov won a bronze medal at the Speedway World Cup in the 2017 Speedway World Cup. The follow ...

* Mateusz Szczepaniak * Norbert Krakowiak * Kacper Lobdzinski *

* Wiktor Rafalski * / Vadim Tarasenko

Notable riders

Honours

References

{{Polish speedway teams Speedway teams in Poland Sport in Grudziądz 1976 establishments in Poland Sports clubs and teams established in 1976