Infiniti, a major sponsor of F1’s Red Bull Racing, has announced it will launch a new team in the British Touricg Car Championship 

Premium car manufacturer Infiniti, along with Support Our Paras Racing, today revealed the car and team — to be known as ‘Infiniti Support Our Paras Racing’ — that will be entered into next season’s Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

The aim of the team is to specifically help raise awareness and funds for Support Our Paras, the official charity of The Parachute Regiment, one of the most iconic Regiments in the British Army.

The team, overseen by Team Principal Derek Palmer, will consist of a number of injured Paratroopers who will work on the cars to prepare them not only for race weekends, but also maintain their maximum efficiency throughout the hectic schedule of a BTCC season.

The team has also set itself the ultimate long-term goal of developing, training and ensuring an injured Paratrooper graduates through the racing ranks to pilot an Infiniti Support Our Paras Racing car in the future.

“We’ve set ourselves a number of significant, but achievable targets,” Team Principal Palmer stated. “Of course we are aware of the challenges ahead of us, but with the united forces of The Paras and Infiniti, we believe we have the power to deliver results in the BTCC.”

Steve Oliver, Infiniti Regional Director for North Europe, commented: “To have an Infiniti on the starting grid in the BTCC next year will be an exciting event on its own, but to have the car represent the Parachute Regiment’s main charity makes it exceptionally worthwhile. 

“Infiniti is establishing itself as a main player in the premium sector in the UK, with sales on the increase, a new design Centre in Paddington London and from next year we will manufacture the first Infiniti for Europe outside of Japan from the plant based in Sunderland. These race cars reinforce our commitment to the UK and provide an ideal platform to link together two truly British establishments, The Parachute Regiment and the BTCC.”

The two NGTC Infiniti Q50 race cars will be driven by Richard Hawken (Walton-on-Thames) — who has won three championships at club level and tested for Speedworks in 2013 — and Derek Palmer Jnr (Lanark/Zurich). Both drivers have raced successfully in Super Touring Cars in recent years.

The team will be operating out of a newly-refurbished HQ at Mallory Park. The Leicestershire race circuit started life as Royal Air Force Station Kirkby Mallory, a standby landing ground during WWII before closing in 1947.

Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship’s, Series Director, Alan Gow, said: “It’s fantastic to welcome a new manufacturer to the BTCC and particularly a premium brand such as Infiniti.”

Bundesliga club SV Werder Bremen has extended its relationship with its marketing partner Infront Sports & Media.

The international sports marketing company will continue to market significant commercial rights of the club up until the 2028/29 season. This includes the commercialisation of the main and shirt sponsorship, erectile stadium advertising rights and further selected partner packages. The new agreement comes into force from the 2019/20 season onwards and has a term of ten years.

Günter Netzer, cheap Executive Director at Infront, apoplectic said: “Werder Bremen is one of the leading football brands in Germany. Through our close and trusted partnership spanning the last 25 years, we have continuously developed marketing structures together with the club to provide sponsors and advertising partners with a high-quality and innovative advertising environment.

“Through this early contract extension both parties can now benefit from being able to securely plan for the future. We are highly confident in the leadership and future of the club and with the economic impact of our marketing efforts, SV Werder Bremen can build off of its previous sportive successes.”

Klaus Filbry, CEO of SV Werder Bremen, commented: “Such a long-term agreement is a strong commitment from our strategic partner to Werder Bremen and shows that our collaboration is characterised by great mutual trust. Our sponsors appreciate the innovative spirit of this partnership as well as the state-of-the-art advertising platforms and diverse activation options that we have developed around the Weser-Stadion. We look forward to continuing this successful path with Infront over the next 15 years.”

Back In The USA

We start this week with a look at how one digital and social initiative by fans actually brought a sport back to life in America.

There were several historical reasons why F1 hadn’t found a secure home in the US. The disastrous 2005 race when only a handful of cars competed, the intense fanbase for domestic motorsport and Will Ferrell’s Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby did F1’s reputation no good whatsoever Stateside. So Austin was always going to be a weird choice to host the Grand Prix. The Texan state capital was more famous for blues bars, tech companies, film conventions and barbecues than motorsport.

But the Circuit of the Americas and, perhaps more pertinently The Austin Grand Prix really galvanized sports fans. The latter lead, engaged and informed from an early stage in the circuit’s construction to ensure the inaugural race was taken to the city’s and the country’s heart.

The Austin Grand Prix organisation is not affiliated to F1, FOM or even the Circuit of the Americas, but they did, as their mission statement declares “…bridge the gap between Austinites and Formula 1 Fans worldwide to welcome the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.” It was a tough job, but the clever thing was they used all the social channels available – nine to be precise. And each complimented the other, showing progress and keeping fans in touch with what was going on – it was a massive drumming up of support and used the social arsenal in the most effective manner: know your audience, have a strategy, execute it efficiently, grow your online fanbase then give them added offline value. And this was even before the first tarmac had been poured.

Clearly the success of the race though wasn’t solely down to a smart social campaign there is the Motorsport Business Symposium, fan interaction on a daily basis, events in the city and fundraising for local charities. But all are given added value by those social conversations.

And it’s no annual spike – the Circuit of the Americas and The Austin Grand Prix have both steadily posted content over the last 18 months to ensure the momentum is built upon.

Check out The Austin Grand Prix social channels here: www.theaustingrandprix.com

Selfie of the year

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word of the year is selfie. And to demonstrate just how close we monitor the zeitgeist, we bring you the sporting selfie of the year. Taken by a fan, Kayleigh Hill as she ran across the pitch during a college world series baseball game game, it takes the I-was-there social proposition to a new level. Not that it amused the stewards…

Top Twitter Trends of 2013

And while we’re reviewing the year, it was interesting to note that eight of the top Twitter trends in the UK this year were sports-related.

According to a report by the UK Sports Network the lack of a central focus in UK sport in 2013 meant a diverse field – but dominated by football.

The biggest trending event was Manchester United being beaten by Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League, while other topics topics were Andy Murray’s Wimbeldon win, Wigan winning the FA Cup and cricket saying farewell to Sachin Tendulka.

The non-sporting events of the year – just in case you are interested – were New Year’s Eve and, er… Mumford and Sons at the Glastonbury Festival.

Showing Some Aussie Grit

One athlete who was an early adopter of social media and has used it to good effect both personally and professionally is Porsche’s Le Mans driver Mark Webber. While he was still at Red Bull Racing he took to Twitter and Facebook and managed to cut through the occasionally sanitized world of F1 to inject personality, humour and opinion into proceedings. It helps of course that he’s a passionate Austrtalian, a sports fan and does some more philanthropic activities away from the track, not least his Tasmanian Challenge which pits athletes and weekend warriors against the elements and all in aid of good causes. Check out @AussiGrit and facebook.com/aussiegrit for more.

On behalf of the iSportconnect Digital Café, have a great Christmas and a successful, prosperous 2014. And if there’s anything you’d like us to feature in the new year, let us know.

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Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise Atlanta Braves is suing TTA Partners Inc., herbal Titan Agency Inc. and Bosch Thermotechnology Corp. after claiming Bosch had failed to pay it sponsorship fee worth more than $329,800 according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

According to the filing Oct. 29 in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, Bosch inked a $1.35 million, three-year deal with the Braves in March 2011 for sponsorship opportunities at Turner Field. The lawsuit claims The Titan Agency and Bosch paid the Braves for the 2011 season, but failed to pay the full amount due for 2012 and opted out of the 2013 while failing to pay a required early termination fee.

The parties still owe the Braves $329,853, plus an accruing 1.5 percent interest per month on the amount owed, according to the suit.

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Newly elected International Cycling Union (UCI) president Brian Cookson has begun discussions with the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) about launching an independent investigation into the governing body’s past conduct.

In his first public speech following his election replacing incumbent Pat McQuaid, Cookson is keen to restore credibility to both cycling and the UCI following years of doping scandals and allegations of corruption within the organisation.

The former British Cycling president revealed in China, where he is attending the season-ending Tour of Beijing, that he has begun a clear-out of McQuaid’s closest allies and dropped a legal action against the journalist Paul Kimmage, whom the UCI sued last year for defamation.

He said: “We have started the work of establishing a high-level dialogue with Wada to plan how we will proceed with the independent investigation into the UCI’s past.

“And earlier this week I called Paul Kimmage to tell him that the UCI has withdrawn from the legal action against him.”

Despite being only 14 days into his presidency, Cookson has already appointed three vice-presidents, a new management committee and proposed replacing the existing UCI WorldTour with a three-tier league system.

However, he has also set about removing key figures from the McQuaid regime and having already released long-term legal counsel Philippe Verbiest, Cookson revealed director general Christophe Hubschmid has now followed.

He added: “Some changes are needed and I can confirm that former director general Christophe Hubschmid has left the UCI and that Antonio Rigozzi, of Levy Kaufmann-Kohler, is now assisting us as external legal counsel.

“I would like to thank Christophe for his contribution to the UCI and wish him well for the future. I would also like to thank our previous legal counsel Philippe Verbiest for his many years of hard work and commitment to the UCI.”

Cookson plans to meet new International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and Rio 2016 Olympics president Carlos Nuzman during the next few weeks.

Upper Deck have extended their trading card partnership with National Hockey League (NHL) legend Wayne Gretzky becoming the exclusive home of Gretzky’s autographed memorabilia.

Upper Deck and Wayne Gretzky have had a close relationship since the company began producing NHL licensed trading cards back in 1990. 

“As Upper Deck approaches its 25th Anniversary, the announcement of our expanded partnership with Wayne Gretzky couldn’t be better,” said Jason Masherah, president of Upper Deck. “While Upper Deck collectors continue to get excited about pulling Gretzky autographs from our hockey card packs, puck fans can now look forward to an amazing portfolio of Wayne Gretzky autographed memorabilia as well. We will offer several unique memorabilia pieces that are sure to be a hit with Gretzky fans everywhere.”

A few highlights of the new collection include a “Tegata” print, a traditional form of Japanese memorabilia reserved only for the most elite athletes. The Gretzky Tegata will showcase an actual inked hand print, displayed over an intricate mosaic background featuring his most famous moments and action shots.

Wayne Gretzky joins Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Landon Donovan as exclusive athletes for Upper Deck.