Speedway Žarnovica is 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 ...

stadium and team in the centre of

Žarnovica Žarnovica (; ) is a town and municipality in the Žarnovica District, Banská Bystrica Region in Slovakia. The town is situated in the Hron river valley. It has a population of around 6,000 people. History The first written mention about Žarnov ...

. The stadium is located off the Bystrická, just south of the tributary, which runs though the centre of the town connected to the

Hron The Hron (; ; ; ) is a long left tributary of the DanubeP ...

. The speedway is organised by the Speedway Club Žarnovica.

History

The stadium opened in 1953 and even when the country was part of

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, it hosted important motorcycle speedway events, including multiple qualifying rounds of the

Speedway World Championship The World Championship of Speedway is an international competition between the highest-ranked motorcycle speedway riders of the world, run under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). The first official championsh ...

, starting in 1979 and a qualifying round of the

Speedway World Team Cup The Speedway World Team Cup was an annual motorcycle speedway, speedway event held each year in different countries. The competition started in 1960 and was replaced with the Speedway World Cup in 2001. Format From 1960 until 1985, each team c ...

in 1986. The first motorcycle sport World Championship event as an independent nation was held at the track in 1994. The stadium continues to hold major international speedway events which have included rounds of the

Individual Speedway European Championship The Individual Speedway European Championship is an annual individual speedway event organized by the European Motorcycle Union (UEM) to determine the champion of Europe. The competition was founded in 2001 and was initially staged as a one-off ...

, finals of the

European Under-19 Individual Speedway Championship The European Under-19 Individual Speedway Championship is an annual Motorcycle speedway, speedway event organised by FIM Europe (formerly the Union Européenne de Motocyclisme, European Motorcycle Union (UEM)) since 1998. Championship history ...

and the

Speedway Grand Prix Qualification The Speedway Grand Prix Challenge or Speedway Grand Prix Qualification is an annual speedway qualifying tournament to determine the qualifiers for the Speedway Grand Prix, which is the World Championship of speedway. History From 1995 the In ...

series. In 2019, the stadium's team called Speedway Club Interteam Žarnovica (due to sponsorship purposes) won the bronze medal in the Czech Republic Team Speedway Championship (there is no Slovakian league).

References

{{Motorcycle speedway tracks Speedway in Slovakia Speedway in Czechoslovakia 1953 establishments in Czechoslovakia Sports venues completed in 1953 Buildings and structures in Banská Bystrica Region Sport in Banská Bystrica Region Sports venues in Slovakia Speedway teams in the Czech Republic