Sviestad-Linköpings Motorstadion

Overview

Linköpings Motorstadion, widely known as Sviestad, is a motorsport complex at Hackefors on the south-eastern edge of Linköping in Östergötland. It is owned and run by the club Linköpings Motorsällskap (LMS), whose sections cover road racing for motorcycles, circuit racing for cars, motocross, speedway, enduro, trial, karting and radio-controlled cars, and the site also serves as a traffic training ground. Rallycross is also listed among the disciplines held at the complex, while the paved road circuit serves car and motorcycle racing.

Technical Specifications and Track Features

The road circuit is a narrow track, between 7 and 10 m wide. Cars and motorcycles use slightly different versions of the lap: the car layout measures 2,137 m and the motorcycle layout 2,160 m. Counted from the start line, the named corners include the Esset, the Crosskurvan, Torpar'n, the Korkskruven, a section round a roundabout, the Bergskurvan and the Sviestadkurvan. The Korkskruven, a corkscrew section, was added for motorcycles in 2007, and from the same year a faster bend has been reserved for cars.

Facilities and Specialized Areas

The traffic training area includes a skid pad where learner drivers take the second part of the compulsory risk training, the course every Swedish learner must pass before the driving test. Its slippery surface comes from water alone, so the cars aquaplane without being modified. The club also runs further training for drivers of cars, minibuses, trucks and buses. Beside the road circuit and the traffic training ground lies a speedway track. It hosted the Nordic Speedway Final in 1969 and 1990 and the Speedway Grand Prix of Sweden from 1995 to 2000, and it was home to the speedway team Filbyterna from 1978 until the team stopped racing in 2010. The 2022 Swedish Individual Speedway Championship was also run here. The club's karting activities are based at the stadium as well.

History

The club's own history begins in 1925, and Linköpings Motorsällskap in its present form was created in 1950 by the merger of Linköpings Motorklubb and SMK-Linköping. The complex itself was built in 1965 and 1966 as a practice ground ahead of Sweden's switch to right-hand traffic in 1967. After the switch, the gravel sections of the course were paved, and the club built its road racing track in 1967. For three decades the circuit was used only by motorcycles; cars were admitted from 1998.