Speedway Daugavpils

[Eberardo Topher]

StadiumLokomotīve (former name Spīdveja centrs) is located at Jelgavas iela 54, Daugavpils. Its capacity is 10,000 seats. The track is 373 metres long and has a granite surface. The track record was set by Grigory Laguta (66.01 sec on 30 May 2010).[3]

The club began league speedway in 1964, as part of the Soviet Union Championship. They won the silver medal in 1970 and 1971.[4] Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union the team continued to race in the Russian Team Speedway Championship, due to the lack of a team competition in Latvia.[5] They won the bronze medal four times in 1995, 1996, 2001 and 2002.[6]

New Daugavpils (east of the city) consists of districts mostly built up by Soviet apartment blocks and post-Soviet individual homes. While pretty much devoid of what to do in Soviet times, the districts have received new churches, supermarkets and else after independence. Nevertheless, people typically go downtown to satisfy their more elaborate needs. In fact, all the Daugavpils tram lines generally link eastern districts to downtown.

Jaunbūve (New buildings) is the main part, consisting of Soviet apartment blocks. A major place of entertainment there is Lokomotiv stadium where the local speedway team plays its home games. Having some 10 thousand seats it is one of largest speedway-specific stadiums in Europe and has hosted world championship events.

Jaunie Stropi (New hives) is an upscale area next to a large Stropu Lake. Many buildings there are large edifices owned by Latvian nouveau-riche, surrounded by a forest. beaches are available, though they are pretty derelict and mainly used by locals.

Daugavpils, also known as Dinaburg (German), Dvinsk (Russian) and Daugpilis (Lithuanian) had a turbulent history of rapid population growths and declines. All the major increases took place under foreign regimes due to non-Latvian newcomers, while each regime change would have sent the population down as people of ethnicities associated with the previous regime would leave for their homelands.

The first growth of Daugavpils took place under Russian Imperial regime when the Empire constructed a fortress here (1810-1878) while businessmen established industry in what was a major rail junction on Saint Petersburg-Warsaw line (laid in 1860).

The city increased in size from 3000 in 1825 to 113000 in 1914 mainly because of migrants from the rest of Russian Empire. Many were Russians but even more were Jews as Daugavpils was one of the few Imperial cities where Jews were permitted to freely settle. As such, it has gained a Jewish plurality (47%).

Perhaps Daugavpils would have been slowly transformed into a Latvian city but that was not to be. World War 2 occupations proved to be a major upheaval that put a final nail in the coffin of that 19th-century city, destroying the majority of its buildings and people. It is often claimed that by late 1940s merely 20000 people remained in the city, wiping out the population growth of past 70 years.

In the place of old Daugavpils Soviets essentially constructed a new city after 1944. Historic Downtown buildings were often replaced by Soviet ones (Stalinist grandeur in the 1950s, shabby edifices later). Many former districts were turned into empty fields with propaganda sculptures.

As such, the Soviet Daugavpils (unlike the Russian Imperial Daugavpils before it) was not really a multicultural city. Rather, it became a city of a single (Russian) language and arguably a single religion (atheism).

So, Daugavpils was a utopia to Russian communists: a location where a single Soviet nation was almost born. But it was also a dystopia to most Latvians: a reminder of what all Latvia could become, should the Soviet occupation and state-sponsored Russian immigration continue.

However, unlike elsewhere in Latvia, Russians retained the majority (54%) and the city remained Russian-speaking, many of its inhabitants refusing to learn Latvian. In independent Latvia where Latvian slowly replaced Russian as lingua franca, this became a hindrance. In addition to direct disadvantages, the Soviet settlers who spoke no Latvian received no citizenship, rendering a third of Daugavpils inhabitants stateless.

For many years now, Daugavpils has hosted top-level international speedway forums. Daugavpils will again become the epicentre of the world speedway this year and will host the semi-finals of the Speedway of Nations" on September 17th and 18th. Indeed, this race will become the most significant sports event in Daugavpils and one of the largest sports events in Latvia in 2021. On this day, the championship held in Daugavpils will be shown on television screens all over the world.

"Speedway of Nations" is a World Speedway Team Championship. The tournament consists of two semi-finals and two final races. Both semi-final races will take place in Daugavpils city, in which 14 best teams of the world will compete for 6 places in the final. Teams from Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Czech Republic, USA, Slovenia and Finland will compete in the first semi-final, which will take place on September 17th. Teams from Latvia, motorsport federation of Russia, as well as riders from Australia, Ukraine, Italy, France and Germany will take part in the second semi-final on September 18th. Only six strongest teams will reach the final and it will be held in Manchester on October 16th and 17th.

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