NHRA will return to Phoenix in 2014

NHRA officials announced Friday the world’s largest motorsports sanctioning body has entered into a multi-year agreement with the Sun Valley Marina Corporation, 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 Int’l 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 Int’l Speedway track executive Dick Hahne to oversee operations.