Smederna

Smederna
Club information
Track address	Smedstadion Tommy Janssons väg Eskilstuna
Country	Sweden
Founded	1951
Team manager	Jerker Eriksson
League	Elitserien
Website	Official website
Club facts
Colours	Red, Black and White
Nickname	The Blacksmiths
Track size	335 metres
Track record time	56.8
Track record date	2022
Track record holder	Dan Bewley
Major team honours
League champions 1973, 1977, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022 Pairs champions 1972

Smederna is a motorcycle speedway club based in Eskilstuna, Sweden. The club competes in the highest speedway league in Sweden called the Elitserien and race its home matches at Smedstadion outside Eskilstuna. Smederna has won six Swedish Speedway Team Championships.

Venues

Snälltorpet

The team raced at Snälltorpet from the 1953 season until the 2001 season, when the land was sold by Eskilstuna Municipality. The track was also used for 1976 Swedish final, the 1976 Speedway World Pairs Championship and the intercontinental final of the 1979 Speedway World Team Cup.

Smedstadion

Since 2002, the team have raced at the Smedstadion.

History

In 1948 the speedway team Griparna (English: the Griffins) started to race in the Swedish leagues. The team was co-run by motorcycle sport clubs SMK Södermanland, Nyköpings MS and Eskilstuna MK and was based in Nyköping, however some of their home matches took place in Eskilstuna. 1951 the team changed name to Smederna (English: the Blacksmiths) and started to race all home matches in Eskilstuna. Until 1953 the home track had been Tunavallens B-plan which was not an actual speedway arena. But that year Smederna moved to the new speedway arena Snälltorpet. But Smederna would only race at Snälltorpet for a few years before closing the team down in 1955.

After eight years SMK Södermanland decided to take up speedway again and in 1963 Smederna started in the third and lowest division in Swedish speedway. In 1967, the club advanced to the second division and in 1971 to the first and highest division. In the seventies Smederna would have its first and biggest time of glory with a couple of team championship medals. In 1973 Smederna managed to win the club’s first championship and in the following three years the team was participating in the medal fight with a silver medal in 1975 as highest result. In the spring of 1976 Smederna and the whole town of Eskilstuna was hit by a big tragedy when local superstar Tommy Jansson crashed to death in a world championships qualification at Gubbängens IP, Stockholm. It was a big blow for the speedway sport in the city and there was a big decrease in the attendance figures. In spite of the tragedy Smederna continued to be one of Sweden’s best speedway clubs for a couple of years with the gold medal in 1977 as best result.

In the eighties the interest for speedway decreased in Eskilstuna as well as in Sweden. Smederna had some internal problems in the beginning of the decade ending up with the club splitting up in two separate clubs, Smederna and Tuna Rebels. Smederna struggled to keep its place in the highest division (since 1982 called Elitserien) and was relegated to the second division in 1985 to 1986, 1988 to 1989 and 1992. In 1993 Smederna had once again advanced to Elitserien and this time the team finished on second place which was the best result in ten years. Smederna now managed to maintain their place in the upper tier for 17 consecutive seasons. In 2002 the club moved to a new home track, Smedstadion, outside of Eskilstuna and in the first season Smederna had problems to make advantage of the new track but already in the following season Smederna won all but one of their home matches. The loss came in the Swedish team championship final against Kaparna. Smederna had to once again settle for a silver medal.

In the recent years Smederna has struggled with financial problems which forced the club to downsize the squad and release a few top riders like Nicki Pedersen, Billy Hamill and Scott Nicholls. In the fall of 2008 Smederna decided to sell the team name to Swedish company Ikaros. As it turned out, this sponsorship deal was not enough to save the club. In July 2009 the club went bankrupt and immediately withdrew from the Elitserien league. The following year the team made a restart in the league system by entering the third tier known as Division 1, still under the name of Ikaros Smederna, and won the league quite easy. For the next two years the club raced in the Allsvenskan league and in the season of 2013 Ikaros Smederna made a return to the Swedish top tier, only four years after the bankruptcy.

The club returned to significant success when they won the league title three years running from 2017 to 2019 and again in 2022.

Season summary

Main article: Swedish Speedway Team Championship

Swedish team championships

• Gold: 6 (1973, 1977, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022)
• Silver: 6 (1951, 1952, 1975, 1993, 2003, 2021)
• Bronze: 4 (1953, 1972, 1978, 1982)

Former top riders

Nation	Name	Years	Honours while riding for Smederna
	Olle Segerström	1951–1954
	Bernt Persson	1964, 1966–1968, 1977–1983	Swedish Champion 1977
	Tommy Jansson	1969–1976	Swedish Champion 1974
	Göte Nordin	1972–1973
	Bengt Jansson	1973–1978
	Olli Tyrväinen	1985–1997
	Peter Nahlin	1986–1996, 2001–2004	World Junior Champion 1988
	Billy Hamill	1991, 1993–2006	World Champion 1996
	Mark Loram	1999–2000	World Champion 2000
	Scott Nicholls	1998–2006
	Nicki Pedersen	2002–2005	World Champion 2003
	Krzysztof Kasprzak	2003–2009	World Junior Champion 2005
	Wiesław Jaguś	2006–2009