On Monday, local newspaper, MVT interviewed Motala Piraterna's manager, Daniel Davidsson, who said that a couple of riders would be announced shortly. And today, at 13:00 hrs the paper announced that Henrik Bergström (SWE) and Andrzej Karpov (URK) have signed for the club, joining Pawel Przedpelski (POL).
Davidsson went onto to say that there are three more riders who have confirmed they will join the club, but he is waiting for signatures before announcing who they are.
One of them seems likely to be his younger brother, Jonas Davidsson. Daniel said on Monday that Jonas will ride for his home town club if he does participate ride in the Elitserien in 2020. In the same interview he did not deny that he himself also might be on the list of riders that SVEMO need to have by Sunday if Motala are to compete in the Elitserien next year.
The name Greg Hancock, appeared in both interviews and Davidsson confirmed he had talked with the four times world champion as well as talking to other riders "in other time-zones", which may indicate an Australian is on his way to the club.
Many would love to see Jaimon Lidsey, the Under 21 rider who rode to bronze with Jason Doyle and Max Fricke in the Speedway of Nations in 2019, come to Sweden after a year focused on racing with Fricke at Belle Vue Aces, in the UK Premiership.
19 year old Henrik Bergström comes in with an average of 0.500 and has mainly raced in Allsvenskan with an average of 1.161 placing him 36th in the riders' list for 2019.
32 year old Andrzej Karpov last rode in Sweden for Eskilstuna Smederna in their championship winning year of 2017 where he clocked up an impressive 1.846 heat average in three matches for the club. That same year he was also in Falubaz Zielona's squad in the Ekstraliga. However, he is pictured above riding for Hammarby for whom he rode a full season in 2011.
Piraterna will need the Ukrainian to find his top form again if they are to get to the Playoffs this year and he will also be racing for Krozno in Poland's League 2 in 2020.
