Born in the United States at the beginning of the last century, then moved to Australia, the Speedway exploded in all its success in England …

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The Speedway, arrived in Italy after the second world war with the first appearances in the disused racetracks of Udine and Trieste, thanks to the interest of the English pilot soldiers, who organized the first races with road bikes adapted to the track.

The Speedway, arrived in Italy after the second world war with the first appearances in the disused racetracks of Udine and Trieste, thanks to the interest of the English pilot soldiers, who organized the first races with road bikes adapted to the track.
It was witnessing one of these events that a group of Leonic athletes, attracted by the subtle charm that fed a completely unknown sport, thought of trying to organize one of these competitions in Lonigo, as our city had a track in a park called Hippodrome (circle for the leonenes) still exists, which for its configuration lent itself to this type called at that time Dirt – Track.

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They invited Lonigo to a great speed motorcycle driver Dario Basso, who presented himself with his faithful Gilera, after having tried the Hippodrome ring, expressed flattering judgments on the same, declaring that it could be suitable for the races.
The Moto Club Lonigo, became a reality as a sports association on 1 January 1947 with the affiliation to F.M.I. and his first seat was the trattoria at the Duomo of Lonigo and next to the first elected President, Giovanni Panozzo and the appointed secretary Mario Colombo, they were part of the first directive council some young people and various figures of the Leonic business and commercial environment, all animated by the same great enthusiasm.
Thus it was that the Ionian Racecourse, the undisputed temple of horse racing, saw the end of an era and witnessed the new motorcycle reality, although it was always a question of horses.

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At that time, in the ring of the Hippodrome, they ran the best national pilots of the time such as: Dario Basso, Giordano Bon, Mario Rupil, Domenico Pietrogrande, the French Francesco Lovato and Iliade Melotto, Luigi Fantuzzi, Gino Marchezzolo, Antonio Cirelli, Carlo Mazzuccato and many others, while among the many foreign champions who measured themselves, we recall the successful winner Manfred Poschenrieder, the legendary Ove Fundin, 5 times world champion, Baronet Barry Briggs, Gunter Valla, Runo Vedin, Otto Lantenhamer, the sidecarists R. Kolb and K. Bold.

 

For many years, July became the “Speedway Day”, an event that attracted thousands of fans from all over Italy, as happened much earlier with the horse fair, which even attracted people from all over Europe.

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Fully savored the success of the pioneering period, the Moto Club becomes aware of its professionalism and of the desire to organize races at a global level and therefore organizes itself to give life to that leap in quality everyone is hoping for.

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Since the Circolo track is no longer suitable for the world project, the Moto Club emigrated to Monticello di Fara, building together with the parish of that fraction, a plant in keeping with the new organizational reality, among the protests of part of the Leonine citizenship, to which a piece of history was taken away.

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While the world championships are coming, the dream of the then President Cav. Luigi Ugo Manega and of all the Moto Club board of directors, was to return home and that is to Lonigo and build a new world championship track.

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The “promised land” was found in via S. Marina and the great dream became reality, with a miracle of great will and dedication on the part of all the members, who lent their work for free in all moments free from their personal interests and from their work.

The works began in the first days of January 1977 and the plant was ready on June 12th 1977, tested with the organization of the Semifinal of the World Championship for Couples, with a resounding success of public and with the praise of the civil and sporting authorities of the National and International Federation, which had considered the sports complex as one of the most beautiful in Europe.