Rospiggarna 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 ...

team based in

Hallstavik Hallstavik is a locality situated in Norrtälje Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 4,476 inhabitants in 2010. The town is famous for its papermill and the Speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Daytona International Spee ...

, Sweden. They ride in the Elitserien are five times champions of Sweden.

History

1930 to 1977

The club was founded in 1930 and were named Orion, although it did not compete in the Swedish speedway leagues until

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

. The club joined the Swedish Division three in 1966 and the team name was changed to Stjärnorna (English: The Stars). They competed in the lower leagues of the Swedish league system as Stjärnorna until 1978.

1978 to 1993

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

, the name was changed again to Rospiggarna which is the

demonym A demonym (; ) or 'gentilic' () is a word that identifies a group of people ( inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place ( hamlet, village, town, city, region, ...

for people from

Roslagen Roslagen is the name of the coastal areas of Uppland province in Sweden, which also constitutes the northern part of the Stockholm archipelago. Historically, it was the name for all the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea, including the eastern par ...

, where Hallstavik is situated. The club were in the second tier, which became known as Division 1 because of the introduction of the Elitserien in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

. Led by Bengt Jansson the team managed two second place finishes in division 1 in

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

and

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 ...

before finally managing to gain promotion after winning the division in 1988. The team's leading riders were Jansson, Mikael Teurnberg and Ari Koponen. In

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 club signed one of the world's leading riders

Tony Rickardsson Jan Tony Sören Rickardsson (born on 17 August 1970) is a Swedish former professional motorcycle speedway rider. He competed in the Speedway World Championships from 1989 to 2006 and won six Speedway World Championship titles in 15 attempts. ...

. However in 1993, Rickardsson topped the league averages but the team finished last and were relegated.

1994 to 2002

In 1994, Per Jonsson replaced Rickardsson and solid performances by Erik Stenlund and Einar Kyllingstad earned promotion back to the Elitserien. Then in

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 ...

, they brought in

Greg Hancock Gregory Alan Hancock (born June 3, 1970, in Whittier, California) is a former professional motorcycle speedway rider from the United States. As of 2023, he was one of only six riders to have won the individual World Championship four or more ti ...

to replace Jonsson and the team won their first ever

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 ...

. A golden era ensued because they won the Championship again 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 ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

and

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

. In addition they won the silver medal in

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 ...

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 ...

and

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 the bronze 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 ...

. Riders such as Hancock, Jimmy Nilsen,

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 ...

, Lee Richardson and Ryan Sullivan were all prominent during this period.

2003 to present

The team continued to compete in the Elitserien until 2010, when it was announced that the club voluntarily made the decision to drop down a division to the

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

due to financial problems. In

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, the club returned to the Elitserien In

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

they won their fifth Swedish team Championship, with a team that included Andreas Jonsson,

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 ...

and Martin Vaculik.

Season summary

Previous teams

2016 team * * * * * * * 2021 team * * * * * * * * * * * Coach * 2022 team * * * * * * * * * * * 2023 team * * * * * * * * * * * *

Notable riders

References

{{Swedish speedway teams Speedway teams in Sweden Sports clubs and teams in Stockholm County Norrtälje Municipality 1930 establishments in Sweden 1930s establishments in Stockholm County