Edward Jancarz


Edward 'Ed' Jancarz was a Polish international speedway rider. He earned 76 international caps for the speedway team">Motorcycle speedway">speedway team.

Career

Jancarz participated in ten Speedway World Championship finals, his highest placing being in his first final in 1968, when he finished on the rostrum in third place after a run-off with Russian rider Gennady Kurilenko. He was also a member of the Polish Speedway [World Team Cup|World Team Cup] winning team of 1969.
Jancarz reached the final of the Speedway World Pairs Championship in the 1975 Speedway World Pairs Championship at the Olympic Stadium in Wrocław, winning a silver medal riding with Piotr Bruzda.
Jancarz rode in the UK for the Wimbledon Dons between 1977–1982, winning the Internationale at Wimbledon in his first season, and in Poland for Stal Gorzów. He won the prestigious Embassy Internationale, at Wimbledon in 1977.
After his riding career ended he was a speedway coach. He was trainer in Stal Gorzów, KKŻ Krosno and Poland national speedway team.

Death

On 11 January 1992 he was fatally stabbed by his second wife, Katarzyna, during a domestic dispute after she confronted him about his alcoholism. He was 45 years old.
Since his death the Edward Jancarz Memorial has been a semi-annual meeting at the speedway that carries his name, the Edward Jancarz Stadium in Gorzów Wielkopolski. To date, 2010 World Champion Tomasz Gollob is the only Polish rider to win the memorial, having done so in 1998 and 1999
Edward Jancarz was the first speedway rider in the World to have a monument dedicated to them. The Monument of Edward Jancarz was built in 2005 and is in the city centre of Gorzów Wielkopolski.

World Final appearances

Individual World Championship

World Pairs Championship

World Team Cup