The Rocket Racing League (RRL), a fledgling venture promising high-flying contests with rocket jocks at the helm, announced its first house team and pilot Thursday.

Veteran private pilot Nick Mowery, of Scottsdale, Arizona, will fly the league’s Thunderhawk Mark 1 X-Racer for Thunderhawk Racing, the first of two planned house teams to compete in the league.

“Our emphasis at this time is readying the Mark-1 X-Racers for our first year race schedule, yet we continue to take advantage of great opportunities,” RRL president and CEO Granger Whitelaw said in a statement. “Nick is a very talented pilot and represents one of those great opportunities that you don’t want to pass up.”

A graduate of Emery Riddle, Mowery is a certified flight instructor and seasoned jet aircraft pilot. He has flown the racing league’s piston-powered rocket racer trainer more than 1,000 nautical miles up the U.S. East Coast and said he is confident the vehicle’s Velocity-built airframe is sound for the RRL’s Mark-1 X Racers.

The rocket racing league aims to offer NASCAR-like races in the skies above Las Cruces, New Mexico using high-flying vehicles based on the EZ-Rocket developed by XCOR Aerospace.

The league unveiled its first house racer, Thunderhawk, in October 2006 during the Wirefly X Prize Cup. In addition to the league’s two planned house teams, two other ventures — the Bridestine Rocket Racing Team led by former U.S. Navy pilot Jim Bridestine and the Santa Fe Racers helmed by father-son team of Edward and Marc Cumbow in Albequerque — are also confirmed competitors.

Earlier this week, the league’s first-ever team — Leading Edge Rocket Racing of Phoenix, Arizona — pulled out of the NASCAR-like venture citing fundamental differences with league officials.

RRL officials, however, said Leading Edge failed to meet all requirements to compete in the league.

The first full RRL race schedule is slated to be held in 2008.