National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) officials announced today that Mrk1 Consulting, a Bahrain-based consulting agency specializing in the development and operation of motorsports venues and major sporting events outside the U.S., will work to support the NHRA Worldwide Network.

Mark Hughes, Mrk1 Consulting founder and managing director, brings to NHRA Worldwide Network more than two decades of motorsports experience, with success in numerous global sporting events, including Formula 1 and the World Rally Championship. Hughes has been involved with the NHRA since 2007, where he worked for Bahrain International Circuit as the operations director. He was instrumental in both Bahrain International Circuit and Yas Marina Circuit in the United Arab Emirates joining the NHRA Worldwide Network.

As part of the NHRA Worldwide Network, Mrk1 Consulting will be assisting with the continued development of drag racing’s infrastructure throughout the Middle East and other emerging motorsports markets, as well as providing support for all existing and future NHRA Worldwide member tracks and racers.

In addition, Mrk1 Consulting will provide training, sales and marketing support and licensing services for all NHRA Worldwide Network member tracks.

In 2010, NHRA announced the creation of NHRA Worldwide Network, a program that enables drag racing facilities around the world to conduct events under the NHRA banner. Since its inception, Yas Drag Racing Centre, Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain Int’l Circuit in Sakhir, Kingdom of Bahrain, have joined NHRA Worldwide Network.

As the premier drag racing sanctioning body in the world, NHRA serves as the president of FIA’s Drag Racing Commission. The worldwide rules adopted by FIA for drag racing originate from NHRA’s Rulebook. Members of the commission meet annually to develop the rulebook and discuss drag racing on a global basis. Organized series are conducted in Europe and Australia.

Headquartered in Glendora, Calif., NHRA is the primary sanctioning body for the sport of drag racing in the United States. 

English Rugby Championship club Moseley have announced their application, in conjunction with Birmingham City Council, for construction of a complex on the west side of their Billesley Common ground was approved by the City Council’s Planning Committee.

The proposed two storey building includes over 700 covered seats, clubhouse rooms, catering facilities and changing rooms.

A ‘national standard’ six lane indoor bowls rink is to be built at the rear of the building. This will be home to ‘The City of Birmingham Indoor Bowls Club’.  This facility, along with the club’s practical assistance, will provide a springboard for a wide range of additional community activities and sports for local residents.

Construction is scheduled for completion in time for the start of the 2014-15 season. The club plan to re-position the existing 650 seat stand and therefore provide a total covered seating potential of over 1300 in September 2014.

Moseley said in a statement: “The medium and long term aim remains to build the East stand as originally detailed and with planning permission approved. This is a strategic part of the club’s plans to build conservatively and within budget towards a facility capable of hosting matches of the highest level in the country.”

National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) officials announced they have entered into a multi-year agreement with the Sun Valley Marina Corporation, buy a corporation of the Gila River Indian Community, to bring an NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event to newly-named Wild Horse Motorsports Park outside Phoenix beginning in 2014.

Since 1985 the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series has visited the Valley of the Sun and this agreement ensures the stars of NHRA will continue to make an annual trek to the greater Phoenix area for years to come. Beyond the national event, preserving the right to race for the local and regional racers is very important to NHRA and this agreement ensures the track will remain open for business.

The track is scheduled to open in September and will begin running NHRA’s racing programs in October.

“We are extremely excited to announce today that the excitement of NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series is here to stay in Phoenix,” said NHRA President Tom Compton. “Working together with the Sun Valley Marina Corporation, the new management team, and the Gila River Indian Community we look forward to staging NHRA Drag Racing at all levels of competition at the track well into the future.”

NHRA will announce the 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule soon, but NHRA fans can anticipate the Phoenix event being held in its traditional place at the beginning of the season. The facility also will continue to host an NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing series divisional event.

Wild Horse Motorsports Park, formerly Firebird International Raceway, is under new management led by Paul Clayton and Darren Smith of Copper Train Development Partners. Most recently, Copper Train Development Partners hired long-time Daytona International Speedway track executive Dick Hahne to oversee operations.

Goodwood Festival of Speed have announced that they are to change the dates of the event from July 5-7 in order to avoid a clash with the rescheduled German Grand Prix.

The FIA announced on Wednesday that it was bringing the German Grand Prix forward a week to July 7 and also creating a slot in Formula 1’s calendar for another as-yet unconfirmed European race.

The Festival of Speed, which takes place annually at Lord March’s estate in Sussex, draws a number of F1 drivers and teams. New dates have yet to be announced.

A statement on the event’s website read: “Due to the FIA unexpectedly announcing a further change to the 2013 F1 calendar, the German Grand Prix will now take place on 5-7 July, the same weekend on which the Goodwood Festival of Speed was scheduled.

“Given that the Festival of Speed is the only event in the world outside of a World Championship Grand Prix where you can get a close up view of the latest F1 cars and drivers in action, we will now have to change the Festival’s date in order to avoid this conflict with the amended Grand Prix calendar.

“Goodwood is now reviewing the 2013 Festival of Speed dates and will confirm these very soon.”

Organisers also confirmed that tickets already purchased will be valid for the new dates.

In a bid to rescue the Chester Jets, the British Basketball League (BBL) have taken over management of the financially stricken club Jets on a short-term basis.

The BBL confirmed the move to save the club, two days after withdrawing the franchise from new owner Hadyn Cook.

Cook had asked to postpone this weekend’s game against the Mersey Tigers due to ongoing financial problems, but the fixture will now go ahead while the BBL tries to find a new owner.

Cheshire captain Chez Marks encouraged fans to come to Sunday’s game to show the team can remain viable.

“This decision gives the team and the people of Cheshire a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate to any potential new owner how much this club means to the local community,” said Marks.

The Indian Premier League Governing Council has issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Deccan Chargers owners, demanding they sort out the club’s financial issues.

The club has been mortgaged to two private banks who now want a stake in the team, which is not allowed by IPL rules.

Neither the IPL council or the club has commented on the story.{jcomments on}

 

American televison channel HBO has announced Miami Dolphins will appear on “Hard Knocks” this summer. 

The Dolphins will be the newest subject of its popular reality series documenting NFL training camps. The seventh season premieres Aug. 7, with four more one-hour episodes airing on subsequent Tuesdays.

Coming off a 6-10 season, Miami has a new coach in Joe Philbin. He said the Dolphins’ involvement in the show was a football decision made with the blessing of owner Stephen Ross.

“Our owner supported this decision but in no way, shape or form forced us to make the decision,” Philbin said in South Florida following an offseason practice Tuesday.

This season marks the 40th anniversary of the Dolphins’ undefeated championship squad – the last team to win the Super Bowl with a perfect record.

Miami’s most recent title came a year later, in 1974.

“Hard Knocks” was not produced last year because of the NFL lockout. In 2010, the Dolphins’ AFC East rivals, the Jets, were the subject of the show, making coach Rex Ryan a reality star.

“It’s a great opportunity to connect with our fans, for the people who aren’t going to be able to come out here daily in 110-degree heat index weather and watch our guys participate in training camp,” Philbin said.

unhealthy helvetica, medstore sans-serif;”>Influential sports teams from across the world are set to gather at Beyond Sport United, stomach a unique event that will bring together the greatest gathering of sports teams ever assembled to address their role in triggering positive social change in the communities they serve.

US sports leagues have backed the event, which will take place on 27th September at Yankee Stadium in New York City, with Major League Baseball (MLB), Major League Soccer (MLS), the National Basketball Association (NBA); the National Football League (NFL); the National Hockey League (NHL); and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) – as Founding Supporters, the first time these organizations have collaborated around the issue of sport in the community.

Influential figures from all these leagues and their constituent teams, from the New York Yankees, New York Giants and New York Jets to Miami Heat, Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Steelers, will unite at Beyond Sport United for a day of meaningful, action-focused, and practical sessions to address how teams can further impact their communities.

They will be joined by senior representatives from their counterparts around the world including the likes of English Premier League football teams Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, and Tottenham Hotspur; the Australian Football League; and Premiership Rugby.

Nick Keller, Founder of Beyond Sport, said: “According to the United Nations, more than 65% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2020. Sports teams are heroic brands with historic resonance that sit at the very heart of these urban communities and as such have a significant role to play in triggering positive social change.

“The opportunity is vast and, with the substantial support of the major US sports leagues, it is our aim that Beyond Sport United will provide the platform from which sports teams can come together for the first time to focus on how they can better impact the communities they serve.”

Beyond Sport is a global organisation that promotes, develops and funds the use of sport to create positive social change across the world.

Irish welterweight boxer Michael O’Reilly won his case in the High Court to be put back up for selection for the European Youth Championships in Dublin this week following a decision by the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) which omitted him from the panel due to an alleged breach of discipline at a recent training camp.

The 18-year-old reigning Irish 68kg welterweight champion was dropped for the event, when he failed to show for an afternoon training session at the National Stadium two weeks ago.

He claimed that he only missed training because he went to get his van fixed in Portlaoise after a minor accident occurred when he let a 17-year-old junior boxer without insurance or a licence park the vehicle.

O’Reilly challenged his omission, which he claimed could jeopardise his €5,000 (£4,374/$8,232) sports grant and his chance of competing at the London 2012 Olympics, and High Court ruled that he must be considered by the IABA Central Council..

O’Reilly’s coach Pat Ryan said: “We are very pleased with the outcome. The judge gave two orders in our favour. One is that the disciplinary action withdrawing Michael from the team was incorrect and that they [the IABA] didn’t have the authority to do that.

“The second is that Michael has been reinstated on the panel. That is all we wanted. In terms of discipline, Mr O’Reilly has travelled all over the world; he has won seven all-Ireland titles and his conduct has been exemplary. He is so overjoyed as all he wants to do is box. He is a credit to his parents and his club.”

O’Reilly can’t walk straight in to the team. Another boxer, Christy Joyce, was selected instead to compete in the 69kg division and O’Reilly had also asked the court to order a box-off between him and Joyce for the right to represent Ireland.

But the request was refused as it was decided that the final selection for all international boxing teams must be ratified by the IABA’s Central Council.

The Council will decide whether to select O’Reilly or Joyce.

In his ruling, Justice John Cooke said that the IABA’s Central Council must disregard the original decision to omit O’Reilly when it meets today in order to finalise the team.

The judge added it was regrettable that the matter in dispute could not have been mediated internally.