Speedway

Last weekend I got invited for a motorcyle speedway event by a good friend. Long time ago I have been before in Wroclaw's Olympic statium watching a training session - accidentally. But just us were watching, no one else. Empty stadium.

So, well, yes, nice, why not - for sure interesting. And the weather forecast promised skyrocking temperatures and blues sky. So at least a good reason we could drink a cold beer there. :)

After troubles getting to the stadium - it seemed to us all trams were closed due to road work - or we just did not know the right ones - we finally made our way.

Geeee! I did not know how popluar this sport is in Poland! At the entrance of the stadium area already hunders of fans, enqueued waiting on ticket counters. Plenty of food kiosks, also surrounded with hungry and thirsty clients. At the stadium again queues at the entrance (due to bag/body/ticket control). So we decided instead of waiting in the too long queue to enjoy a cold beer (I told you before!) in the shadow in front of the stadioum before entering (no beer allowed inside).

In the stadium: Beautiful vibe! I got a short introduction that start is most important, which driver is best one in the Wroclaw team and so on. Then my friend was busy watching, no more time for me. And all kind of people there: young, old, buddies, fan clubs, complete families. Quite a lot were writing down results (winner, ranking, race time) in professional booklets. Fan clubs with (well sort of) firework and (very good!) speaking choir.

The peoples enthusiasm was catching - latest after the third race I was already acclaiming our local heros and shouting against the bloody oponents. Fast acclimatization.

Later I made my homework with Wikipedia: Poland is quite sucessful among the few important speedway nations in the world. Beside Poland there are only Denmark, Sweden, UK, Australia and USA with sucessful drivers. The bikes have one gear only, no breaks at all and using menthanol as fuel resulting in more powerful engines with race speed up to 130km/h.

So next time you are in Poland and some hours left and there is a speedway race in town, go for it! I'll be there again in three weeks. Maybe we meet?