Jacob Thorssell came up into professional speedway racing for Vetlanda Speedway as a teenager. Now 26-year-old, he’s just finished his seventh season in the SGB Premiership as well as completing his first season for Målilla Dackarna in Sweden.
It was a mixed season for one of the few Swedes racing in the UK, where his Wolvehampton Wolves were beaten in the semi-finals by eventual winners’ Swindon Robins. And whilst Thorssell did not do badly with a heat average of 1.781, it was his lowest score for three years at the Midlands club. ”I like the Premiership because it means I get to race a lot of matches. I think it wouldn’t be enough just to race in just Sweden and Poland”.
In Sweden’s Elitserien his club has slightly better fortune, as Dackarna came through to final only to lose again to three times champions, Eskilstuna Smederna.
“That was the worst thing last season, losing the Swedish champions to Eskilstuna. We had a great year, but fell apart in the final – it just shouldn’t happen. We were the top team in the league, but it wasn’t enough to win the playoff. I don’t really know what went wrong, but Smederna were simply better than us. I don’t think any of us were satisfied with second place. But otherwise, it’s been great to ride at Målilla, it’s a track I really like”, reflected the Swede on his season at Dackarna.
Despite that loss, the 26-year-old had one of his best season’s in the league with a 1.396 average.
2019 is not the first year that Thorssell has taken part in an SGP, “but I had a really bad day at the office”, he says about his performance at the Scandinavian SGP in Målilla won by fellow Swede, Fredrik Lindgren.
At least Thorssell was able to pick up two points in his final heat of the night, when he beat the experienced Matej Zagar and Niels Kristian Iversen in Heat 18.
He qualified for that race by becoming the Swedish National Champion for the first time in his career in July 2019. It was a dramatic win and, of course, the highlight of his season.
Thorssell, who finished equal fourth on points after the 20 qualifying rounds, was the only finalist forced to take part in a semi-final to get into the last race of the night. But that extra heat seemed to give him the edge and in the final he sailed through to become Swedish Champion, beating Andreas Jonsson, Kim Nilsson and Linus Sundström.
In 2020 Thorssell will race with the same teams as the previous year, Wolverhampton (SGB Premiership), Dackarna (Elitserien) and Gdansk (Nice 1) hoping for Gold instead of Silver in Sweden.
