Esbjerg Speedway Klub or Esbjerg Vikings (part of Esbjerg Motosport) is a

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Daytona International Speedway, a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida. *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta. *Indianapolis Motor Spe ...

club from

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport city and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban area, urban population of 71,554 (1 January ...

in Denmark, who compete in the

Danish Speedway League The Danish Speedway League () or Danish Super League or Metal League as it is called today is the top division of motorcycle speedway in Denmark. In 1955, the idea of a Danish Tournament for teams surfaced. The Danish Speedway League began in ...

. The team have won the

title on 11 occasions in

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

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 ...

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

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 ...

and

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Track

The club's home venue is the Granly Speedway Arena, which is located about 16 kilometres in a easterly direction from the centre of Esbjerg, on Tinghedevej 9.

History

1929 to 1966

Esbjerg Motorsport was founded in 1929 as the Esbjerg Automobile and Motorcycle Club. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the club acquired moorland and built a track called the Korskro Motor Center, which opened on 7 July 1946. Following financial issues and increased stadium safety costs during 1950, the club were forced to find a cheaper option and moved to the Esbjerg Idrætspark, which contained the new Esbjerg Atletikstadion and the

Esbjerg Stadium The Esbjerg Stadium (), known as the Blue Water Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium located within Esbjerg Idrætspark in Esbjerg, Denmark. It is the home ground of Esbjerg fB and has a capacity of 16,942, of which 11,451 is seate ...

. The site held several important speedway meetings such as the 1960, 1996 and 1968

Danish Individual Speedway Championship Individual Speedway Danish Championship is the National competition for Danish speedway riders to determine the champion of Denmark. The winner of the final is awarded a gold medal and declared Danish Individual Champion. The riders finishing se ...

s. Esbjerg Motor Sport joined the Danish Automobile Sports Union (DASU) in 1963.

1967 to 1985

, a new organised tournament was formed with seven teams being registered. One of the teams was the called Vikingerne (the Vikings) formed by the Esbjerg club and this resulted in instant success as they won the 1967 Danish tournament. The team consisted of Finn Rasmussen,

Bent Nørregaard-Jensen Bent Nørregaard-Jensen (born 2 December 1949) is a former international speedway rider from Denmark. He earned 5 caps for the Denmark national speedway team. Speedway career Nørregaard-Jensen was Danish champion in 1974 after winning the Da ...

, Preben Bollerup, Kaj O. Jensen, Finn Schelde, Kurt Bøgh and team captain Poul Wissing. The Vikings left the Athletic Stadium and returned to the Korskro Motor Center (which has undergone an expansion in 1955) and then achieved four consecutive league titles in

and

. The team enjoyed a large following and attendance receipts helped them become profitable, erasing the memories of the 1950s financial troubles. However, the Korskro track did not meet international specifications, so it was totally rebuilt and renamed the Esbjerg Motor Center, which opened on 1 May 1971. It also contained a longtrack, which became one of the sport's primary venues and held the 1982 and 1985

Individual Speedway Long Track World Championship This is the complete list of Individual Long Track World Championship medalists from 1971. Also included are the medalists from 1957 to 1970 when the championship was known as the European Individual Long Track Championship. Medalists Europ ...

s. The Vikings domination of Danish speedway continued, with the team winning three more Danish championships in

and

1986 to 1990

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

, the professional

or Superliga was created, of which Esbjerg were a founder member. The Vikings were able to call upon the world champion

Erik Gundersen Erik Gundersen (born 8 October 1959 in Esbjerg, Denmark) is a former motorcycle speedway rider. Gundersen is one of the most successful speedway riders of all time, having won the Speedway World Champi ...

for the new era. Despite having one of the world's best riders the team struggled to make an impact and when they finished last in

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

they dropped out of the top tier.

2007 to present

The Vikings returned to the top tier 17 years later for the 2007 Danish speedway season. They finished runner-up in 2008 and then won their 10th and 11th league titles in

and

. The team of the period included riders such as

Niels Kristian Iversen Niels Kristian Trochmann Iversen (, born 20 June 1982 in Esbjerg, Denmark) is an international motorcycle speedway rider. He is a seven times national champion of Denmark and was part of the Danish teams that won the Speedway World Cup in 2006 ...

Artem Laguta Artem Grigoryevich Laguta (; born 13 November 1990) is a Russian motorcycle speedway rider and member of the Russian national team. He is the 2021 World Champion. Career details Laguta became the Russian champion in 2010 and 2011. In Aug ...

Patryk Dudek Patryk Dudek (; born 20 June 1992) is a Polish motorcycle speedway rider who is a member of the Poland national speedway team, Polish national speedway team. Career Dudek's father, Sławomir Dudek, Sławomir, was a professional rider and P ...

Kenneth Bjerre Kenneth Bjerre Jensen (born 24 May 1984 in Esbjerg, Denmark) is a Danish international motorcycle speedway rider. He earned 17 caps for the Denmark national speedway team. Career Bjerre began his Polish league career in 2001 for Ostrów. The ...

Mads Korneliussen Mads Klit Korneliussen (born 15 June 1983) is a Danish former motorcycle speedway rider. Career Born in Aalborg, Denmark, Mads Korneliussen is the son of Karl Erik Korneliussen and younger brother of Tim Korneliussen, both former riders. Mads to ...

Leon Madsen Leon Daniel Madsen (born 5 September 1988) is a Danish speedway rider who is twice a World Championship silver medalist. Career Born in Vejle, Madsen won the 80cc junior World Championship in 2001. In 2018, Madsen won the Individual Spee ...

and Mikkel Bech. In 2014, the track was renamed the Granly Speedway Arena. The team have since competed every season in the Super League. In 2022, the club signed three times world champion

Tai Woffinden Tai Woffinden (born 10 August 1990) is a British speedway rider. He is a three-time World Champion (2013, 2015 and 2018). Early life Woffinden was born in Scunthorpe, the son of former speedway rider Rob Woffinden. Although born in the Unite ...

. The following season in

, the Vikings won their 11th league title after finishing second in the league standings but winning the Super Final.

Riders

Notable riders

* * * * * * * * * *

References

{{Esbjerg Speedway teams in Denmark Sport in Esbjerg 1929 establishments in Denmark Sports clubs and teams established in 1929