Dag Lövaas (born 25 February 1951 in

Holmestrand is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Holmestrand Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The town is the administrative centre of the municipality. It is located along the shore of the Ytre Oslofjord, about northwest of the Horten ...

, Norway) is a former international

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, who reached the finals 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 ...

in 1974. He earned 9 caps for the

Norway national speedway team The Norway national speedway team are one of the teams that compete in international team motorcycle speedway. History The Norwegian speedway team competed in the inaugural Speedway World Team Cup in 1960, finishing third in the Scandinavian r ...

Family

His brother Ulf Lövaas was also a speedway rider.

Career summary

Lövaas was twice Norwegian champion, winning the

Norwegian Individual Speedway Championship The Individual Speedway Norwegian Championship is an annual speedway event held each year organised by the Norges Motorsportforbund (NMF). The first championship was held in 1938 in Trondheim and saw Ragnar C. Erichsen as winner. History ...

in 1973 and 1974, as a NMK Tønsberg rider. In Great Britain, he started his career with

Newcastle Diamonds Newcastle Diamonds were a motorcycle speedway team that raced in the British speedway leagues from 1929 to 2022. They were based at Newcastle Stadium on the Fossway, Byker. The Stadium was previously known as Brough Park. History Origins and ...

in 1970. He won the

British League The British League was the main motorcycle speedway league in Britain from its formation in 1965 until 1995 when British speedway was restructured. It initially had a single division, with a British League Division Two, second division starting i ...

in 1973 with

Reading Racers Reading Racers were a British motorcycle speedway team. Formed in 1968, they won four British League titles during their history. The club closed in October 2008 after the lease on Smallmead Stadium was sold and the site was demolished. His ...

finishing with the 5th highest

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

in the league. When Reading closed for a year he moved to the

Hackney Hawks Hackney Speedway opened in 1935 at Hackney Wick Stadium, Waterden Road, London, and operated until 1996. The team raced under various names, known as Hackney Wick Wolves, Hackney Hawks, Hackney Kestrels and London Lions. History Origins & 1 ...

in 1974, finishing the season with the highest recorded

in the Hawks' history. He then rode for

Oxford Rebels The Oxford Cheetahs are a British speedway teamLawson,K (2018) “Riders, Teams and Stadiums”. based at Oxford Stadium, in Oxford, England. They were founded in 1939 and are five times champions of Britain, in 1964, 1985, 1986, 1989 and 2001 ...

(photo) in 1975, winning the Midland Cup and then moved with the team and the promoters

Danny Dunton Dennis Clifford Dunton (13 May 1924 – 2 January 2015) was an English international motorcycle speedway rider and promoter who reached the final of the Speedway World Championship in 1950, achieving 12th place with 5 points. As well as riding, ...

and Robert Dugard to become the

White City Rebels The White City Rebels were a motorcycle speedway team who operated from the White City Stadium, Wood Lane in London, England. History In 1928 the new sport known as dirt track arrived from Australia and the White City Stadium brought speedw ...

in 1976.Lawson,K (2018) “Riders, Teams and Stadiums”. Dag had been keen to ride at Oxford, a track he loved and was disappointed at the move to the London stadium in 1976. On deciding not to return to England in 1977, White City were granted a 'Dag Lovaas (Rider Replacement)' facility for the entire season, in which they ended up as champions.

World Final appearances

Individual World Championship

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

Ullevi Ullevi, sometimes known as Nya Ullevi (, ''New Ullevi''), is a multi-purpose stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden. It was built for the 1958 FIFA World Cup, but since then has also hosted the World Allround Speed Skating Championships six times; the ...

- 11th place - 5 points

World Pairs Championship

1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...

Borås Borås ( , , ) is a city (officially, a locality) and the seat of Borås Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 114,556 inhabitants in 2024. It is widely known for being a textile city, home to worldwide brands and companie ...

(with

Reidar Eide Reidar Eide (6 November 1940 – February 1999) was a Norwegian motorcycle speedway rider, who was champion of Norway on five occasions. Biography Born in Høyland, Eide took up speedway in 1957.Oakes, Peter & Mauger, Ivan (1976) ''Who's Who of W ...

) - 5th - 17pts (8)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lovaas, Dag 1953 births Living people Norwegian speedway riders Hackney Hawks riders Norwegian expatriate speedway riders in England Newcastle Diamonds riders Reading Racers riders Oxford Rebels riders White City Rebels riders People from Holmestrand Sportspeople from Vestfold