MILLSBORO, Del. – Following a January jump-start in the Sunshine State, the Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Series fueled by Sunoco gets the official green flag with a bustling March.

The STSS March Madness includes events at Delaware’s Georgetown Speedway and Central Pennsylvania speedplants Selinsgrove Speedway and Port Royal Speedway.

Outside of the Northeast, Chatham Speedway in Louisiana kicks off the historic STSS Cajun Region with the points opener.

As it has since 2016, Georgetown Speedway opens the Northeast season for both the STSS and Modified industry with the Melvin L. Joseph Memorial weekend event Friday-Saturday March 12-13.

The First State facility features both the Velocita-USA presented by Design for Vision and Sunglass Central South Region STSS Modifieds (49 laps, $10,049 to win) and Belmont’s Garage South Region Crate 602 Sportsman (25 laps, $1,549 to win) in points openers among a variety of divisions.

Other divisions competing over the weekend include Small-Block Modifieds (30 laps, $4,049 to win), RUSH Late Models (20 laps, $1,049 to win), Southern Delaware Vintage Stock Cars, Little Lincolns, Delaware Super Trucks and Delmarva Chargers.

Selinsgrove Speedway opens its milestone 75th anniversary season with the STSS on Saturday, March 20.

The Icebreaker STSS doubleheader includes Velocita-USA South Region Modifieds (40 laps, $5,000 to win, $1,000 for 10th, $400 to start) and Belmont’s Garage Crate 602 Sportsman (25 laps, $1,500 to win, $100 to start).

Selinsgrove becomes the 24th different facility to host the series in its eight-year history.

A favorite for fans and competitors, Port Royal Speedway hosts the ‘Spring Speed Showcase’ for STSS Modifieds on Sunday, March 21. The 40-lap, $5,000-to-win program puts the STSS Velocita-USA South Region Modifieds on the card in a doubleheader with the Zimmer’s Service Center ULMS Super Late Models.

Following back-to-back weekends in the Northeast, Jerry Hobson’s Chatham Speedway in Louisiana gets the honor of kicking off the Short Track Super Series Cajun Region with the first points-paying race on Saturday, March 27.

The Cajun Region is designed to provide local Louisiana and Texas competitors local events throughout the season with a point fund in place thanks to a partnership with Day Motorsports of Tyler, Texas and American Racer Tires.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – TeamSLR is set to embark upon a full season of racing with the Trans-Am Series beginning this weekend at Sebring Int’l Raceway.

TeamSLR has been a staple of Trans Am since 2016, and the Florida-based team heads into the season opener at the 17-turn, 3.74-mile track with a two-car lineup that will compete for the TA2 championship. Connor Mosack and Scott Lagasse Jr. will race Camaros, with Mosack in the No. 28 and Lagasse in the No. 92. It will be the first time TeamSLR runs the full TA2 schedule, and Mosack and Lagasse are each eyeing the title.

“We have a really strong driver lineup this year with a mix of youth and experience,” said Scott Lagasse Sr., president, TeamSLR. “We’re running the full TA2 schedule with two cars – one for Connor and one for Scotty – and it’ll be the first time we compete for the championship. Trans Am has proven to be a very competitive series and the more you run, the better you are. We’re going all in, not just in regard to running for the title, but also with our driver development program. You’ll see three TeamSLR cars at many Trans Am races this year with some really good, young prospects behind the wheel.”

Mosack is one of those young drivers. The 22-year-old from Charlotte, N.C., attends High Point (N.C.) University and raced late model stock cars last year for JR Motorsports. He has already made a name for himself in NASCAR’s development divisions, but with road-course racing becoming more and more prominent in NASCAR’s national touring series, Mosack is committed to a full TA2 schedule with TeamSLR after running a handful of races with the organization in 2020.

Lagasse Jr., is TeamSLR’s veteran. The 40-year-old from St. Augustine, Fla., has made more than 115 starts across the NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and ARCA Menards Series. The two-time ARCA race winner has been competing in TA2 since 2016. Lagasse Jr., owns TeamSLR and is a 2004 graduate of Flagler College.

TeamSLR leverages its Trans-Am involvement to highlight its driver development program as well as its car-building capabilities. TeamSLR is the exclusive representative of M1 Racecars, an official TA2 constructor. It builds rolling chassis and complete Camaros, Mustangs and Challengers for Trans Am competition.

“Everyone with TeamSLR and M1 Racecars has worked smart through the winter to build and deliver new cars for our M1 teammates, both in house and from around the country,” Lagasse Sr. said. “We truly enjoy being able to help competitors make progress in their racing programs. We assist teams with quality cars, set up and tuning, as well as driver optimization. We take a methodical approach and focus on quality over quantity, using our expertise to deliver strong results.”

David Alaba will leave Bayern Munich on a free transfer at the end of the 2020-21 season, he confirmed on Tuesday.

Alaba, who has won nine Bundesliga titles and two Champions Leagues during his time at Bayern, has been linked with Real Madrid, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea but has not revealed his next move.

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"I have made the decision to try something new after this season and to leave the club. It was a difficult decision. I have been here for 13 years. I made so many memories here," Alaba said.

"I have not decided what is next for me. I decided to seek a new challenge. That's why it took time.

"I have five, six, seven years left in my career. That's why I decided to try something new.

"It's no secret my management is in touch with several clubs. I will focus on my task here and will remain in contact with my management."

His final days at the club have been overshadowed by his contract situation with Bayern withdrawing their contract offer in the autumn shortly after former club president Uli Hoeness accused Alaba's agent Pini Zahavi of being "a money-grabbing piranha."

Bayern later said that the door was still open, but the 28-year-old had already decided on a move from the Allianz Arena.

Alaba, who also won six German cups, five German and two European Supercups and two Club World Cups, joined Bayern as a youth player in 2008 and made his competitive debut in a 6-2 cup win against Greuther Furth in February 2010. To date he has made 415 competitive appearances for the club and also won 76 caps for Austria.

Starting out as a midfielder, he was converted into a left-back by Louis van Gaal in 2010 but more recently he was moved to centre-back, first by Niko Kovac and now by Hansi Flick, following the emergence of Alphonso Davies at left-back.

As a central defender, Alaba has been crucial as Bayern first won an eighth consecutive Bundesliga title in 2020 and then began an historic run of silverware, winning the DFB-Pokal, the Champions League, the European and German Supercup and, finally, last week the Club World Cup.

At the tournament in Qatar, Alaba returned to midfield in the final, where he also played in Monday's 3-3 draw with Arminia Bielefeld.

The long trek to the start of the regular season begins this week with training camps opening up on time in Florida and Arizona -- although with many of the same COVID-19 protocols in place as during the 2020 season.

For now, Opening Day on April 1 is on schedule -- the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers start up at the Colorado Rockies -- and the 108-page operations manual for 2021 includes shorter spring training games, mandatory wearing of contact-tracing devices, fines for not wearing masks properly and bans on indoor dining and going to movie theaters.

Fans will be allowed to attend spring training games in limited numbers; Florida teams will limit cross-state travel for games; and players will face a five-day quarantine when first reporting to camp. Otherwise, it's all systems normal -- as normal as they can be, anyway.

As players head to spring training, let's take a run around the majors to see the biggest spring training story to watch for each team and some key players to keep an eye on.

British pole vault champion Holly Bradshaw outlines how the Athletes’ Commission at UKA is looking to help field events get a bigger share of the spotlight

During my time in the sport, I have seen and become aware of more and more issues needing to be tackled, so I was really passionate about getting involved with the Athletes’ Commission at UK Athletics.

Getting involved helps to promote change and one of the biggest things we are looking to address is that, in general athletics terms, it feels like field events get a bit of a raw deal.

Now I don’t want to sound bitter and I’m not bashing the track athletes at all, it’s just that the way athletics is shown and the issues with TV coverage creates a massive void, which is a big concern.

The field events don’t really get shown on the TV and as a result people don’t really understand our events.

That lack of exposure reduces sponsorship opportunities for the athletes, while it also leads to reduced participation as kids will see the sprinters and track athletes on TV for long stretches whereas they might catch me jumping for a 10-second period. How is that going to attract them to field events?

With that in mind, within the Commission we’ve set up a group which is trying push forward and raise the awareness of the field disciplines. I have done presentations to those in charge at UKA where I have shown the German street meets and what the Manchester CityGames used to be like – just showing how the field events can be presented – and they have listened so I am hopeful that, over the next five or 10 years, field events will come into the limelight and get a little more love.

"I'm a big ambassador for my sport and I love it. I want to get it out to as many people as possible so Britain can be a powerhouse!"@HollyBradshawPV on the benefits of pole vault street meets.

Watch this clip to get a taster and then click the link below for the full video ⬇️

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) February 4, 2021

How do we try to change minds? It has got to come from three different angles.

Firstly, you have got to tell the story in terms of the TV coverage a little more. The pole vault competition in the Lausanne Diamond League last year – a dedicated, standalone event where Mondo Duplantis and Sam Kendricks both jumped six metres – was a perfect example of what can be done. I had people messaging me afterwards to say how exciting it was.

I think TV companies need to find a way to show the full shot put competition, the full long jump competition or whatever it might be to really tell the story.

Secondly, some investment into coaching for field events is needed in the UK. When you compare the number of field event coaches employed compared to track it is very different and I believe field events actually need more coaches than track, just because each event is so technical, so different and so specific.

With the exception of Tore Gustafsson, who is not based in the UK, we don’t have a single throws coach employed in this country so how are we going to get more kids and more people involved in field events when we don’t have the coaches?

Having someone to promote each field event would make a big difference.

Then the other barrier we face is that European and World Athletics are capping the number of people that compete at major championships.

Say, for the 60m at the world indoors, there are heats, semi-finals and finals – just think how many athletes that allows to go to a major championships? In the field events, however, there are straight finals so you’ve got 12 athletes in the women’s pole vault final, as opposed to 30 or 40 on the track.

Things like that might not sound like a lot but to the field community it is.

We have an issue with development, too. One of the biggest strengths athletics has over any other sport is its inclusivity, but I see it down at my club Blackburn Harriers – where there is more of an endurance culture – that you might have 10 kids down there who are different shapes and sizes but they are all doing the same session of just laps around the track.

If you were to line me, Morgan Lake, Jazmin Sawyers, Sophie McKinna and Sophie Hitchon up alongside each other – we do five different events and we all look and are so different but kids aren’t necessarily getting to see these differences because they are not being shown these field events.

There’s definitely a collective feeling that more of a push is needed now. I understand, of course, that you need equipment and some clubs can’t afford poles, to re-lay a shot put circle or build a hammer cage. It’s just one of the challenges we face, but I do feel there’s a growing frustration out there.

The recent performances of the world’s top field athletes are helping, though. The male and female world athletes of the year for 2020 were both jumpers, with Mondo in the pole vault and Yulimar Rojas in the triple jump.

I have recently had a conversation with UKA CEO Jo Coates where she asked if we might be able to push the pole vault in the UK off the back of performances of people like Mondo. I was delighted she said that and I really do feel that the top athletes are enlightening others.

With the Athletes’ Commission, we are also now in a better place to make change. I believe that it has given athletes a platform where we can formalise our concerns and we are taken seriously.

Get in touch with us, however small you think your concern might be. You might think a certain issue is only affecting you but you might find there could be another 100 athletes experiencing the same thing.

We’re here to support and to be the voice of all athletes.

WHAT IS THE ATHLETES’ COMMISSION?

Formed in 2017, The Athletes’ Commission is a group of 12 former and current British international athletes who work together to represent athletes’ views and voices to the British Athletics Performance Team and the UK Athletics Board with the aim of ensuring the athlete perspective is heard and understood by the decision makers in our sport.

WHO IS INVOLVED?

Holly Bradshaw (pole vault)
Ashley Bryant (decathlon)
Nathan Douglas (triple jump)
Hannah England (1500m) Commission Chair
Adam Gemili (200m)
Dan Greaves (F44 discus)
Andrew Heyes (3000m, cross country) Chair elect
Stephen Miller (club throw)
Naomi Ogbeta (triple jump)
Steph Twell (10km, marathon)
Vanessa Wallace (F34 shot put)
Richard Whitehead (T61 100m & 200m)

WHO IS IT FOR?

While the Athletes’ Commission is immediately to serve athletes who have competed for Great Britain over the past six years, they know that coaches, assistants or staff may wish to highlight issues on behalf of their athletes.

HOW DO I GET IN TOUCH? WHERE DO I GO IF I HAVE A QUESTION OR A CONCERN?

There are a number of ways to get in touch with the Athletes’ Commission on any issue in the sport you think worth raising.

Ulster pair Stuart McCloskey and Tom O'Toole are among 12 players released by Ireland so they can have playing time with their provincial sides.

Also released are Bundee Aki, Ultan Dillane and Dave Heffernan (all Connacht) along with Leinster trio Ryan Baird, Ross Byrne and Jack Conan.

Munster quartet Craig Casey, Andrew Conway, Shane Daly and Chris Farrell complete the 12-strong list.

Ulster scrum-half John Cooney, who provided specialist cover for Ireland's defeat by France on Sunday along with Harry Byrne and Eric O'Sullivan, has also returned to the Kingspan Stadium.

Ulster are in Pro14 action on Friday night with an away game against Glasgow Warriors.

Leinster travel to face the Dragons, also on Friday, while a day later Connacht host Cardiff and Munster take on Edinburgh.

France's Six Nations squad is in isolation after a staff member tested positive for coronavirus, the French Rugby Federation (FFR) says.

France are top of the Six Nations table after two wins from two and host Scotland in Paris on 28 February.

Galthie's side beat Ireland in Dublin on Sunday.

An FFR statement said players would be tested again on Wednesday and then twice more this week, adding: "In line with health protocols, all team and staff members are isolating. Interactions will be kept to an absolute minimum."

France will announce their 31-man squad for the Scotland match on Wednesday.

Gerard Pique has made a miraculous recovery from a knee injury to make Barcelona's squad for Tuesday's Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain.

The defender suffered ligament damage in Barca's defeat to league leaders Atletico Madrid at the end of November and it was initially feared he would miss the remainder of the season. However, less than 90 days later, Pique has been called up by Ronald Koeman for the round-of-16 first-leg tie at Camp Nou despite turning down surgery at the end of last year. Instead, Pique, who turned 34 earlier this month, opted for more conservative treatment and club sources say medical staff have been "stunned" by the speed of his return to fitness.

Koeman announced on Monday that the centre-back could be available against PSG and said that if he was in the squad it would be because he was in shape to start the game if needed.

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Pique returned to full training at the end of last week, although lacks match fitness having not played a competitive game since the 1-0 loss at the Wanda Metropolitano on Nov. 21.

The temptation to use Pique from the start against the French champions on Tuesday has increased on the back of the news that Ronald Araujo has been ruled out. Araujo sprained his ankle in the Copa del Rey semifinal first-leg defeat to Sevilla last Wednesday and has not recovered in time to face PSG.

Barca are also without right-back Sergi Roberto and forwards Ansu Fati and Philippe Coutinho.

PSG, meanwhile, are missing Neymar and Angel Di Maria through injury, but coach Mauricio Pochettino is hopeful Marco Verratti will be able to feature after shaking off a knock to train on Monday.

Arsenal are investigating whether captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang broke COVID-19 regulations after footage emerged of the striker getting a tattoo.

The 31-year-old was featured in an Instagram story posted five days ago by Spanish tattoo artist Alejandro Nicolas Bernal receiving some new artwork on his hand.

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Aubameyang was recently given permission by Gunners boss Mikel Arteta to travel to France to care for his mother, Margarita, who fell seriously ill. He missed three matches as he spent time in quarantine on his return to England.

Neither Aubameyang or Bernal were seen wearing a mask but it is not clear when the footage was shot. After the video of Aubameyang was brought to the club's attention, an Arsenal spokesman told ESPN: "It's a private matter and we will be speaking to the player to establish the facts."

The United Kingdom government has closed all mobile and static tattoo parlours as part of the nationwide lockdown.

Aubameyang returned to the Arsenal starting line-up last Sunday, scoring a hat-trick in a 4-2 win over Leeds United at Emirates Stadium. He wore gloves during the game so his hand was not visible.

Afterwards, Aubameyang said: "It's been a tough time for me, but now it's time to get the smile back and win games and score goals, that's it.

"From everybody around the club, everyone was giving a lot of love to me, my mum and my family, so I'm really, really happy and I'm really proud to be part of this family.

"I have to say thank you to everyone at the club and the fans as well because I received a lot of messages. I'm really happy today, the win and goals -- this is for them."

It's been two months since we last watched Champions League action, with the group stages coming to a close in early December.

But fear not, the 2020-21 competition is set to whir back into life on Tuesday as the knockout phase gets under way with the first batch of round-of-16 ties and the latest official match ball, which will be used all the way through until the final, has also been revealed.

20 years of history.
Introducing the new official @ChampionsLeague match ball, celebrating 20 years of the iconic starball design.
Available tomorrow from https://t.co/FblJVIGgpI#UCL pic.twitter.com/6iRp0x7Y7f

— adidas Football (@adidasfootball) February 15, 2021

The Adidas Finale Istanbul 21 is a nod to the iconic Adidas "starball" design, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year having first been introduced in 2001, and incorporates panel designs taken from every single one of the 20 previous Champions League final balls, with the thin red banners marking the relevant year and host city for each of them.

Now that the Champions League is firmly back on the agenda and the new ball is ready to roll, here's a refresher on some of the more notable things to have happened in the competition so far this season.

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Ronaldo overcame Messi

Two years (947 days to be exact) since their last encounter, twin modern day goliaths Messi and Ronaldo came head-to-head on the same pitch in the sixth and final Champions League matchweek before the winter hiatus.

Barca had a three-point cushion over Juve at the top of Group G heading into the match, but that soon vanished as Ronaldo and his cohorts emerged victorious. It was the 36th time Ronaldo and Messi had met on the pitch, and the former came out on top, scoring twice while his great rival struggled to gain any kind of foothold in the game.

Juve prevailed as 3-0 winners on the night, ensuring that they ended the campaign as group winners, having risen above their foes to seal top spot by the narrowest of margins.

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Rashford thwarted PSG (again)

Marcus Rashford produced yet more late heroics as Manchester United defeated PSG on their own soil for the second year running.

There was controversy in the previous season as a stoppage-time penalty (given by VAR for handball against Presnel Kimpembe) from Rashford secured a dramatic 3-1 win win over the Parisians to gift United progress in the round of 16 on away goals.

Skip forward to October 2020 and Rashford once again left it extremely late (the 87th minute) as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side kicked off their Group H campaign with a 2-1 win at the Parc des Princes, though things did not go so well in the return game (see below).

Bayern Munich rumbled on

The Champions League holders look well poised to defend their crown, having gone unbeaten throughout the 2020-21 group stage.

The Bavarians are unbeaten in the competition since 2018-19, when they fell to a 3-1 defeat against Liverpool in the second leg of the round of 16, and since then they've played 16 games and won 15, with a 1-1 draw against Atletico Madrid at the Metropolitano Stadium in December the only (relatively minor) blemish on their otherwise flawless copybook.

Indeed, Hansi Flick's newly crowned Sextuple winners are in imperious form once again, having scored 18 goals in six group-stage outings thus far -- considerably more than any other team.

Haaland kept breaking records

After making a prodigious start to his Champions League career, Erling Haaland has continued his incredible form into his second season.

The Borussia Dortmund striker shattered more records by becoming the fastest player in history to reach both 10 and 15 Champions League goals.

It took Haaland seven games to take his tally to 10, and then just 12 games to score 15 goals -- a record previously jointly held by Ruud van Nistelrooy and Roberto Soldado, both of whom took 19 games to reach the 15-goal mark.

The 20-year-old Norwegian reached his latest milestone by scoring twice in Dortmund's 3-0 win over Club Brugge in late November, the second of which also happened to be the German club's 300th goal in the competition.

As things stand, Haaland is joint-top scorer in the Champions League this season, joining Alvaro Morata, Neymar and Marcus Rashford on six goals apiece -- and that's with injury ruling him out of Dortmund's last two group stage ties.

Real Madrid rode their luck

With consistency already an issue, Real Madrid got their 2020-21 group campaign off to a wretched start by losing 3-2 against Shakhtar Donetsk at the Bernabeu.

Los Blancos' hazy aspirations of winning a 14th Champions League title looked to be in tatters as they then lost the return fixture against Shakhtar, stumbling to a 2-0 loss in Ukraine in early December (their third defeat in five games in all competitions), leaving the Spaniards third in Group B with one game left to play.

Fortunately, Real rallied to beat Borussia Monchengladbach on the final matchday, with results elsewhere meaning that Zinedine Zidane's beleaguered side leapt up several rungs to somehow finish as group winners.

They came good when it mattered and squeezed through to the knockouts, but performances haven't exactly been stellar in the intervening months, and a humiliating Copa del Rey defeat against third-tier side Alcoyano a few weeks ago serving only to pile yet more pressure on Zidane's shoulders.

With seven important games still between Real and the final in Istanbul, how much luck do they have left in reserve?

Managers made some moves

Zidane is holding at Real Madrid on for the time being, but several Champions League clubs have relieved their head coaches of their responsibilities since the winter break began.

Despite finishing top of their group, Chelsea pulled the plug on Frank Lampard's 18-month stint in charge in January, replacing the club legend with Thomas Tuchel.

Similarly, Tuchel had been responsible for steering PSG to the top of Group H, but was fired in January to make way for former Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino to step into the breach.

Pochettino will now be looking forward to taking charge of PSG in Europe for the first time, though he'll be starting with a real baptism of fire -- a two-legged round-of-16 knockout clash against Barcelona.

Man City sailed through

Manchester City went sailing through their group campaign with five wins from six outings, the only dropped points coming via a 0-0 draw against Porto in early December.

Pep Guardiola's side topped Group C in unflustered fashion before continuing their dominant form on the domestic scene over the winter period.

City are now sitting pretty at the top of the Premier League having recently set a record for the most consecutive victories in all competitions of any top-flight club in English football history. Indeed, a routine 3-1 win over Swansea in the FA Cup last weekend saw City enter the record books by racking up their 15th win on the bounce in all domestic competitions -- a streak during which they've scored 40 goals and conceded just five.

They now face Borussia Monchengladbach in the next phase of the Champions League, with the German side likely to be quaking in their boots at the very thought of facing a team in such rampant form.

Liverpool's implosion started

Ever since Liverpool suffered a shock 2-0 Champions League home defeat against Atalanta at the tail end of November -- losing a competitive match at Anfield by a margin of more than one goal for the first time in 137 matches -- the rot set it, and their subsequent results have been all over the place.

It hasn't all been bad, but with only seven wins from 16 games, it's fair to say that Jurgen Klopp's once-dominant side have struggled since that sobering night.

Most recently, three defeats in their last five games have seen Liverpool eliminated from the FA Cup and fall 13 points behind leaders Man City in their increasingly unlikely quest to defend the Premier League title.

Now that the Champions League offers new hope, Klopp's men will be seeking to re-focus their efforts and arrest the slump with a resurgent performance against RB Leipzig in the round of 16.

Manchester United didn't make it

And where are United, the aforementioned semi-vanquishers of PSG, in all this?

Well, you'll be able to find Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's team taking on Real Sociedad in the round of 32 of the Europa League on Thursday night.

As you may recall, United were sent packing from the Champions League when they lost 3-2 against RB Leipzig -- the first time the club have been eliminated at the group stage of the competition since 2015-16, when Louis van Gaal was at the helm.