History
Alfred Smoczyk (1928–1950) was the first Polish speedway superstar. He successfully competed on Dutch tracks in the late 1940s, but died in a road accident in October 1950. [1] He was the first Individual Polish Champion after World War II (in 1949). The year after his death in 1951, the Alfred Smoczyk Memorial event was first held and shortly afterwards in April 1952, plans were put into action to build a new speedway stadium. [2]
The opening of the new stadium took place on 19 April 1953. In 1960, the stadium hosted a qualifying round of the Speedway World Championship. [3] [4]
In 1974/75 the track was replaced and the stands were expanded to increase the capacity to 40,000. In 1977, as part of the national harvest celebrations and the visit of Edward Gierek to Leszno, the stadium underwent a major renovation and modernisation, opening on 11 September 1977.
In 1984, the stadium held the first of four World Cup finals, the first being the 1984 edition followed by 2007, 2009 and 2017. [5] In-between, it also hosted the final of the 1989 Speedway World Pairs Championship. [6] [7]
The stadium has hosted the Speedway Grand Prix of Europe (a round of the world championship) for five consecutive years from 2008 to 2012. [8]
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