Dackarna 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 ...

club from

Målilla Målilla () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality in Hultsfred Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden with 1,524 inhabitants in 2010. It is commonly known as the temperature capital of Sweden due to both high and low temperature records being set the ...

in Sweden who compete in the Swedish Elitserien. Their home track since 1993 has been the

Skrotfrag Arena The Skrotfrag Arena is a 15,000-capacity multi-use stadium in Målilla, Sweden. The stadium is regularly used as the venue for the World Championship races; the Speedway Grand Prix of Scandinavia and the Speedway Grand Prix of Sweden (rounds of ...

which was the venue for the Grand Prix of Scandinavia and is the current venue for the

Speedway Grand Prix of Sweden The Speedway Grand Prix of Sweden is a speedway event that is a part of the Speedway Grand Prix Series. Winners Most wins * Jason Crump 4 times * Bartosz Zmarzlik 4 times See also *List of sporting events in Sweden * Speedway Grand ...

. They ride in the

Elitserien Elitserien (literally, "the Elite League") is the name of several Swedish nationwide sport leagues. In many sports, Elitserien is the highest league, with the second highest named Allsvenskan. Elitserien leagues at present: * Elitserien (badmint ...

and are six times champions of Sweden.

History

1935 to 1964

The team was founded in May 1935 as Målilla Motorklubb and in 1949 renamed itself Dackarna (in honour of

Nils Dacke Nils Dacke (died 1543) was a Swedish yeoman who was the leader of a mid-16th century peasant revolt in the historic province of Småland in southern Sweden. The resulting Dacke War () was fought against King of Sweden, King Gustav I of Sweden ...

) and the club began league racing. The team raced at the Gamla Målilla Motorstadion but in 1956, the team rode their matches at the Växjö Motorstadion. In

1957 Events January * January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany. * January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. * January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be Dismissal (cricke ...

, Dackarna won division 1 and were declared the winners of the

Swedish Speedway Team Championship The Swedish Speedway Team Championship is the team championship of motorcycle speedway, speedway in Sweden. History The Championship was introduced in 1950. In 1982 the Championship was renamed with a new league called the Elitserien (speedwa ...

for the first time; the team included

Rune Sörmander Rune Bertil Leopold Sörmander (29 November 1929 – 20 December 2020) was an international motorcycle speedway rider from Sweden. He earned 66 caps for the Sweden national speedway team. Speedway career Sörmander was one of speedway's leadi ...

and

Dan Forsberg Dan O. Forsberg (born 25 March 1934) is a former international motorcycle speedway rider from Sweden. He earned 17 caps for the Sweden national speedway team. Speedway career Forsberg was a leading speedway rider in the late 1950s. He reached ...

. They then dominated the championship by winning successive titles in

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

and

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

before claiming a fourth success in

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

. Riders like Sormander,

Per-Tage Svensson Per Tage Svensson (16 October 1931 – 26 May 2008) also spelt Per Thage Svensson was an international motorcycle speedway rider from Sweden. He earned 14 caps for the Sweden national speedway team. Speedway career Svensson reached the final o ...

and Åke Andersson were instrumental during this period.

1965 to 1996

Dackarna switched between the first and second league for the next 30 years until 1997. Despite a largely quiet period they did win five tier two titles in

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, ...

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 ...

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

and

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

. Tommy Johansson also won the 1973 Swedish title as a Dackarna rider. In 1992, the Gamla Målilla Motorstadion was demolished and a new Målilla Motorstadion opened on 29 June 1993 and Dackarna would become the resident speedway team.

1997 to 2005

When the team received the backing of a major new sponsor (Svelux) and were renamed Team Svelux in

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 ...

. Svelux were taken over by

Luxo Luxo ASA is a Norwegian manufacturer of lamps. Based in Oslo, it has sales throughout Europe and North America, with production plants in Norway, Sweden and Keila, Estonia. The company was founded in 1934 and was listed on the Oslo Stock Excha ...

in 2002 and the team name was changed to Luxo Stars.

2006 to present

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, the sponsorship deal expired and the team name reverted to Dackarna. Success soon returned to Dackarna when they won the

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

Elitserien, after defeating

Västervik Västervik is a city status in Sweden, city and the seat of Västervik Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden, with 36,747 inhabitants in 2021. Västervik is one of three coastal towns with a notable population size in the province of Småland. Cl ...

in the

play-off The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eith ...

final. The team included

Andreas Jonsson Andreas Karl Rune Jonsson (born 3 September 1980 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish former international motorcycle speedway rider. He was a member of the Sweden speedway team that won the World Cup in 2003, 2004 and 2015. He earned 26 caps for ...

Freddie Lindgren Jan Fredrik Tobias (Freddie) Lindgren (born 15 September 1985) is a Swedish motorcycle speedway rider. He has won the silver medal and the bronze medal twice at the Speedway World Championship, in addition to the world team championship in 2015 ...

, Hans Andersen and Peter Karlsson. In

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, Dackarna became Swedish champions for the sixth time, after defeating

Smederna Smederna is a motorcycle speedway club based in Eskilstuna, Sweden. The club competes in the highest speedway league in Sweden called the Elitserien (speedway), Elitserien and race its home matches at Smedstadion, Eskilstuna motorstadion outsid ...

in Eskilstuna. The team included

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 ...

Jason Doyle Jason Kevin Doyle (born 6 October 1985) is an Australian motorcycle speedway rider. He became World Champion in 2017 after winning the 2017 Speedway Grand Prix. Doyle is a member of the Australia national speedway team and represented his coun ...

Maciej Janowski Maciej Janowski (born 6 August 1991 in Wrocław, Polandwww.janowskiracing.com
Retrieved on 2008-07-04 ...

and

Jacob Thorssell Jacob Thorssell (born 24 July 1993) is a motorcycle speedway rider from Sweden. He is a two times Swedish national champion. Career Thorssell joined Wolverhampton Wolves in the Elite League for the 2012 season, as a replacement for Pontus ...

Smålänningarna and Team Dalej

Smålänningarna and Team Dalej compete in the tiers below the Elitserien and were a collaboration between Dackarna and

Lejonen Lejonen () is a motorcycle speedway team from Gislaved, Sweden, Gislaved in Sweden, who compete in the Elitserien (speedway), Elitserien. Their home track is at the Gislaved Motorbana or the OnePartnerGroup Arena for sponsorship purposes, which ...

allowing less senior riders the opportunity to race. The collaboration ran from 2020 and the Smålänningarna name came from and old team that had riders from

Småland Småland () is a historical Provinces of Sweden, province () in southern Sweden. Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name ''Småland'' literally means "small la ...

Season summary

Previous teams

2019 Team * * * * * * * * * 2020 team * * * * * * * * * 2021 Team (Champions) * * * * * * * * * * * * * 2022 teams 2022 Dackarna team * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 2022 Smålänningarna team *

Mathias Thörnblom Mathias Thörnblom (born 14 July 1992 in Malmö) is a Swedish motorcycle speedway rider. Career Thörnblom made his British leagues debut in 2012 when he rode for Coventry Bees, although he only rode one match for the club. He reached the fi ...

* Casper Henriksson * Sam Jensen * Wiktor Jasinski * Aleks Lundquist *

Jonas Knudsen Jonas Hjort Knudsen (born 16 September 1992) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a defender. He played for Esbjerg fB from 2009 before signing with Ipswich Town in 2015. He is known for his long throws and in Denmark his throws ha ...

* Daniel Kaczmarek *

Kacper Pludra Kacper Pludra (born 21 August 2002) is an international motorcycle speedway rider from Poland. Career At the end of the 2021 season, Unia Leszno sold him to Grudziądz Pludra's breakthrough year was in 2022, when he won the silver medal in t ...

* Szymon Szlaunderbach * Avon van Dyck * Tony Gudbrand *

Mika Meijer Mika Meijer (born 5 April 2001) is a motorcycle speedway and Long track motorcycle racing, long track rider from the Netherlands. Career Meijer came to prominence when he reached the U19 final of the 2017 Individual Speedway Junior European ...

2023 team * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Notable riders

References

{{Swedish speedway teams Speedway teams in Sweden Sports clubs and teams in Kalmar County Hultsfred Municipality 1929 establishments in Sweden 20th-century establishments in Kalmar County