Norway national speedway team

Norway
Norway
SWC Wins	0; World Pairs bronze (1968, 1991)

The Norway national speedway team are one of the teams that compete in international team motorcycle speedway.

History

The Norwegian speedway team competed in the inaugural Speedway World Team Cup in 1960, finishing third in the Scandinavian round at Odense, Denmark. The team consisted of Aage Hansen, Rolf Mellerud, Nils Paulsen, Rolf Westerberg and Sverre Harrfeldt.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

From 1960 to 1985, the team failed to qualify from their qualifying group during the World Cup, due to the fact that they were drawn together in qualifying with two of the world's strongest speedway nations, Denmark and Sweden. They did however win a bronze medal at the 1968 Speedway World Pairs Championship.

The World Team Cup system changed in 1986 but it was not until the 1991 Speedway World Team Cup that the team progressed from qualifying to round two.^[5] During the same year of 1991, the team equalled their greatest feat, when winning a bronze medal at the 1991 Speedway World Pairs Championship.

The nation reached their first and only World Cup final to date in 1995.^[6] In recent years, the nation has failed to qualify for the World Cup but did compete in the semi finals of the 2022 Speedway of Nations and reached the 2022 European Pairs Speedway Championship final.

Major tournament finals

World Team Championships

Year	Venue	Standings (Pts)	Riders	Pts
1995	Göteborg Polonia Bydgoszcz Stadium	1. Denmark (28) 2. Great Britain (22) 3. United States (19) 4. Sweden (19) 5. Australia (14) 6. Poland (13) 7. Norway (11)	Lars Gunnestad	8
			Rune Holta	3
			Arnt Førland	0

World Pairs Championship

Year	Venue	Standings (Pts)	Riders	Pts
1968	Kempten Kempten Speedway	1. Sweden (24) 2. Great Britain (12) 3. Norway (16) 4. West Germany B (12) 5. West Germany A (10) 6. Denmark (6)	Odd Fossengen	11
1968	Kempten Kempten Speedway		Øyvind S. Berg	5
1973	Borås Ryavallen	1. Sweden (24) 2. Denmark (21) 3. Poland (21) 4. Soviet Union (20) 5. Norway (17) 6. Czechoslovakia (11) 7. New Zealand (10)	Reidar Eide	9
1973	Borås Ryavallen		Dag Lövaas	8
1991	Poznań Olimpia Poznań Stadium	1. Denmark (28) 2. Sweden (24) 3. Norway (19) 4. Germany (18) 5. Czech Republic (18) 6. Italy (10) 7. Poland (9)	Lars Gunnestad	11
			Einar Kyllingstad	8
			Tor Einar Hielm	-

European Pairs Championships

Year	Venue	Standings (Pts)	Riders	Pts
2022	Slangerup Slangerup Speedway Center	1. Denmark (26) 2. Czech Republic (23) 3. Poland (21) 4. Sweden (18) 5. Latvia (17) 6. Great Britain (15) 7. Norway (6)	Truls Kamhaug	3
			Lasse Fredriksen	3
			Glenn Moi	1

International caps (as of 2022)

Since the advent of the Speedway Grand Prix era, international caps earned by riders is largely restricted to international competitions, whereas previously test matches between two teams were a regular occurrence. This means that the number of caps earned by a rider has decreased in the modern era.^[7]

Rider	Caps
Andersen, Henry^[8]
Berg, Øyvind S.	14
Egedius, Einar	2
Eide, Reidar	17
Faafeng, Jonny	2
Arnt Førland, Arnt^[9]
Fossengen, Odd	8
Gimre, Kjell	1
Godal, Tom	2
Gramstad, Rolf	5
Gravningen, Jan Terje	5
Gunnestad, Lars	22
Hansen, Aage	22
Hansen, Bjorn	4
Hansen, Per Arne	1
Haarfeldt, Henry	1
Haarfeldt, Sverre	7
Haugvalstad, Jorn	2
Holta, Rune
Hveem, Basse	11
Kaasa, Svein	5
Kamhaug, Truls
Kyllingstad, Einar	16
Langli, Helge	4
Langli, Tormod	7
Lövaas, Dag	9
Lövaas, Ulf	6
Ødegaard, Jon	3
Olsen, Audun Ove	6
Paulsen, Nils	12
Pedersen, Sigvart	3
Pedersen, Stein Roar	1
Skretting, Trond Helge	3
Stangeland, Edgar	10

References

^ Rogers, Martin (1978). The Illustrated History of Speedway. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 134. ISBN 0-904584-45-3.
^ Bott, Richard (1980). The Peter Collins Speedway Book No.4. Stanley Paul & Co Ltd. p. 99. ISBN 0-09-141751-1.
^ Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. pp. 27–28. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
^ Matthews/Morrison, Peter/Ian (1987). The Guinness Encyclopaedia of Sports Records and Results. Guinness Superlatives. p. 290. ISBN 0-85112-492-5.
^ "FIM SPEEDWAY WORLD CUP/ SPEEDWAY OF NATIONS" (PDF). Motor Sport Top 20. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
^ "1995 WORLD TEAM CUP". International Speedway. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
^ "ULTIMATE RIDER INDEX, 1929-2022" (PDF). British Speedway. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
^ "Speedway". Liverpool Echo. 21 May 1951. Retrieved 26 August 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ "World Team Championship". Coventry Evening Telegraph. 25 September 1995. Retrieved 26 August 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.