Svein Harald Kaasa (16 April 1947 – 29 September 1972) was an 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 from

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

who was killed during a race meeting. He earned 5 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 ...

Career

Kaasa, a draughtsman by trade won the bronze medal at consecutive Norwegian Championships in 1970 and 1971. He joined the Oxford Rebels team for the 1972 British League season, which was the top tier of speedway in Britain at the time. He struggled to find form and was released at which point he moved to league rivals Glasgow Tigers. On 29 September 1972 he was riding for Glasgow for the fifth time. In the 11th heat of the meeting at

Hampden Park Hampden Park ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden'') is a association football, football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland, which is the national stadium of football in Scotland and home of the Scotland national football ...

he touched the rear wheel of Martin Ashby, which threw him from his bike and he was then crushed on the safety fence by his bike. He suffered serious head injuries and medical staff attempted to

resuscitate Resuscitation is the process of correcting physiological disorders (such as lack of breathing or heartbeat) in an acutely ill patient. It is an important part of intensive care medicine, anesthesiology, trauma surgery and emergency medicine. ...

him but he died on the track. There is a memorial made from Norwegian stone at the Glasgow Tigers track in his memory.

References

1947 births 1972 deaths Motorcycle racers who died while racing Norwegian speedway riders Glasgow Tigers riders Oxford Cheetahs riders Norwegian expatriate speedway riders in England {{Norway-speedway-bio-stub

Career

See also

References