Only one month has gone by since the end of the season in Sweden’s Elitserien and already the silly season is nearly over as clubs announce their signings and re-signings.
However, before we get into that we should take a look at a worrying trend for Swedish speedway – riders who are ceasing to come to the country and instead concentrate on the Ekstraliga and the SGP series.
With attendances reducing across the Elitserien in 2019 compared to the previous year, the news that British triple world champion, Tai Woffinden will not be riding in Sweden in 2020 is definitely a blow. But that Sweden’s best rider, Fredrik Lindgren also announced he will not ride is news SVEMO (the Swedish motor-racing authority) certainly did not want to hear.
Artem Laguta has currently not signed for any club in Sweden and with a heat average of more than 2.3 there are not many clubs that have space for such a talent. At the same time, no one knows quite what Greg Hancock will do. He was signed for Dackarna in 2019 with an average of 2.030 but, of course, never took up that opportunity due to family illness.
It now means that only 1 of the top 5 in the 2019 SGP series will be racing in Sweden in 2020.
And whilst ten of the top 16 from the World Champions are still in the country, the Elitserien has every reason to fear a drain of talent if riders believe that there will get better results if they skip riding in Sweden and concentrate on the Ekstraliga and SGPs. Sweden could suffer the same fate as the UK Premiership where only two SGP riders competed in the league, Jason Doyle and Robert Lambert this season.
This year also sees the retirement of Swedish rider, Andreas “AJ” Jonsson at 39 years old who finished his career at Rospiggarna. He said that his body just cannot recover from the injuries anymore.
Another rider who will be not be riding in Sweden is Indianerna’s Polish star, Piotr “PePe” Protasiewicz after 20 years at the club. The 44-year-old is going to continue in the Ekstraliga and has not ruled out helping out in the case of injury at the Kumla club that he has supported through thick and thin.
