Marian Spychała (3 April 1932 – 26 February 2015) was 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 clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

rider and manager from Poland. He managed the

Poland national speedway team The Poland national speedway team is the national motorcycle speedway team of Poland and is controlled by the Polish Motor Union ( PZM). They are one of the most successful speedway nations of all time. History The Polish speedway team parti ...

Career

Spychała started his speedway career with

Kolejarz Rawicz Kolejarz Rawicz (Railwayman Rawicz) is a motorcycle speedway team based in Rawicz, Poland. They currently race in the Polish Speedway Second League (2. Liga). History The club competed in the inaugural 1948 Polish speedway season, under the name ...

during the

1949 Polish speedway season The 1949 Polish Speedway season was the 1949 season of motorcycle speedway in Poland. Individual Polish Individual Speedway Championship The 1949 Individual Speedway Polish Championship was held in Leszno on 23 October 1949. It was the fifth ru ...

. He remained with the club for eight years, in which time he won a silver (1955) and bronze medal (1954) with the team 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 ...

. After spells with Sparta Wrocław and Unia Tarnów he joined Stal Rzeszów for the

1961 Polish speedway season The 1961 Polish Speedway season was the 1961 season of motorcycle speedway in Poland. Individual Polish Individual Speedway Championship The 1961 Individual Speedway Polish Championship was held on 24 September at Rzeszow. Golden Helmet T ...

. He rode with the team for ten years until 1970 and won several team medals, including the gold medal for the league championship in 1961. In 1970, he was denied the chance to appear in the

1970 Speedway World Pairs Championship The 1970 Speedway World Pairs Championship was the first FIM Speedway World Pairs Championship. The final took place in Malmö, Sweden. The championship was won by New Zealand (28 points) who beat Sweden (25 points) and England (19 points). Se ...

final because Poland did not send the team to the event despite qualifying for the final. He retired after the 1970 season and later began coaching. He gained significant recognition as the manager of the Polish national team manager in the late 1970s and the manager of the Kolejarz Opole team from 1994 to 2008. He died in 2015 after falling into bad health following the murder of his daughter by an unknown perpetrator. on 2 July 2015, the Opole Speedway Stadium was renamed in his memory and took the name the Marian Spychała Speedway Stadium.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spychala, Marian 1932 births 2015 deaths Polish speedway riders