Polonia Piła 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

Piła Piła (; ) is a city in northwestern Poland and the capital of Piła County, situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. Its population was 71,846, making it the city in the voivodeship after Poznań and Kalisz and the largest city in the north ...

who currently race in the Polish Speedway Second League (2. Liga). They 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. In 2000, the First Division was r ...

once in 1999.

History

1957 to 1968

Polonia Piła was founded in 1945 as a multi-sports club. The speedway section was founded in 1950. It started competing in the

as Polonia Piła in 1957. They struggled in the lowest division until

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

, when they disbanded.

1992 to 1999

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

the team returned to action competing in the second division. In

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

, they signed former world champion Hans Nielsen and won the second league and gained promotion to the highest division (the first league at the time). After their promotion the team experienced their best spell in their history. Hans Nielsen topped the Polish averages with 2.772 in 1995 and then they won the bronze medal in the

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 ...

and

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 ...

Polish Championships followed by a silver medal in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

. In

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

, the team finished second in the regular season table and then won the play offs to become champions of Poland for the first time. The riders that brought success to the club (in addition to Nielsen) included

Rafał Dobrucki Rafał Dobrucki (born 27 December 1976 Poland) is a Polish former speedway rider. He earned four international caps for the Poland speedway team. Career On 25 July 1999 he won the Continental Final, which formed part of the 2000 Speedway ...

Jacek Gollob Jacek Gollob (born 27 October 1969 in Bydgoszcz, Poland) is a former motorcycle speedway rider from Poland. Career Gollob twice won the individual Polish Championship (in 1998 and 2000), and has also won the team and pairs championships sever ...

and

Jarosław Hampel Jarosław "Jarek" Hampel (; born 17 April 1982 in Łódź, Poland) is a motorcycle speedway rider from Poland. He is a six times World Cup winner and earned 24 caps for the Poland national speedway team. Career He received his speedway licen ...

2000 to 2021

Pila were inaugural members of the Ekstraliga 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 ...

and won the silver medal. Jacek Gollob won the

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 ...

. From 2003, the club experienced significant problems on and off the track. Financial issues, team promotion and management changes and quickfire relegations in 2003 and 2005 resulted in the team finding themselves in the 2. Liga (the third tier). The problems continued with the team changing their name on more than one occasion. A better season in 2011, when they won the Second League was ruined by liquidation in 2012. However, yet another new name Victoria Piła was used for the 2013 to 2015 seasons before reverting back to Polonia for the 2016 season.

2022 to present

During the 2022 Polish Speedway season Polonia returned the 2. Liga but finished last. In 2023, a new management team took over the club and they would be known as KS Polonia.

Teams

2023 team

* Michael Palm Toft *

Artur Mroczka Artur Mroczka (born 2 November 1989 in Poland) is a motorcycle speedway rider from Poland. Career He was a member of the Poland U-21 national team. In 2008, he won the Team U-21 World Championship, Individual U-19 European Championship and P ...

* Dan Gilkes *

Daniel Henderson Daniel Henderson (born 4 April 1991) is a motorcycle speedway and Ice speedway rider from Sweden. Speedway career In 2021, he suffered serious injuries in a crash, which resulted in 12 broken ribs and a spine injury and was close to announc ...

* Marcin Jędrzejewski * Jonas Knudsen * Piotr Gryszpinski

Previous teams

2022 team *

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 Cham ...

* Marcin Jedrzejjewski * Tomasz Orwat * Kacper Makowski * Marcin Ogrodnik * Lars Skupien * Lukas Fienhage

Notable riders

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Polonia Pila Speedway teams in Poland Piła County Sport in Greater Poland Voivodeship 1945 establishments in Poland Sports clubs and teams established in 1945