MOTALA PIRATERNA
Piraterna have had an epic post season.
Stefan Andersson Skill came back to the club as manager and Pawel Przedpelski extended his contract.
But that was the end of normality for the Motala club when news broke that the club was threatened with bankruptcy.
That lead to a mass exodus with all the foreign riders leaving the club and eventually Andersson Skill also threw in the towel too.
Several attempts to rescue the team failed and everything seem doomed until a second appeal to the public and local business went out. Then Piraterna announced that they would race in the Elitserien in 2020 and that Greg Hancock could be on his way back to Sweden!
That rumour sent the internet berserk, further fuelled by the four times world champion signing with ROW Rybnik in Poland.
With just over two weeks to find a team, new manager Daniel Davidsson, who is from Motala and was in the team in 2019, had “mission impossible” to find riders willing to ride for the club at short notice. Somehow the 36-year-old Swede has managed to do it and that has naturally, meant several returnees to the club, including Dane, Peter Kildemand, pictured racing Piraterna in 2016.
With no relegation in 2020, the club can focus on stabilising the Pirate ship and maybe, just maybe, the Grin will race some matches for the team before the season is out.
- Andrzej Karpov (UKR) 1.846*
- Pawel Przedpelski (POL) 1.524
- Thomasz Gapinski (POL) 1.467
- Josh Grajczonek (AUS) 1.458
- Peter Kildemand (DEN) 1.368
- Grzegorz Walasek (POL) 1.349
- Daniel Davidsson (SWE) 0.980
- Jonas Davidsson (SWE) 0.840
- Henrik Bergström (SWE) 0.500
- Joel Larsson (SWE) 0.500
1.846 is the average Karpov last had when he raced for Smederna in 2018. However, he only took part in three matches, and this is not the official average in accordance with SVEMO’s figures.
