- Noted car designer Bob Riley passed away Thursday morning at the age of 93. Riley had a 50-year career in sports car racing, penning GT racers and prototypes alike.
He was involved in Ford's Le Mans efforts in the late 1960s, helped design the Coyote chassis that A.J.
Foyt won his fourth Indianapolis 500 in 1977, then designed the front-engined Ford Mustang GTP that competed in IMSA in the early 1980s. The Mustang GTP was fast, but had engine issues that prevented it from being successful.
Riley was also involved in designing customer chassis for Trans-Am teams. In 1991, that expertise, along with that of his son, Bill, were
transferred back to prototype racing. The company Riley & Scott was founded by Bob Riley and Mark Scott in 1990 to design the Intrepid RM-1, a Chevrolet-powered prototype for the IMSA GTP class. The cars were raced by Wayne Taylor and Tommy Kendall.
When the GTP cars were retired after 1993, Riley & Scott designed the Mk. III, an open-top prototype with some
resemblance to the Intrepid which became more or less synonymous with World Sports Cars in the mid-to-late 1990s. Dyson Racing raced the cars with Ford engines to substantial success. Taylor had a deal with Oldsmobile in 1996 and won both Daytona and Sebring with Aurora V8 engines that eventually made their way to the Indy Racing League.
The company also developed the
Cadillac Northstar LMP, a factory race car that competed in the American Le Mans Series from 1999-2002, before being purchased by Reynard.
After Reynard went bankrupt, the Rileys formed Riley Technologies in 2001. The company is best known for designing Daytona Prototypes. The Riley Mk. XI, Mk. XX and the DPG3 (also known as the Mk. XXVI) competed from 2003-2016, taking 84
victories and eight championships.
Today, Riley Technologies has a number of roles. They run Riley Motorsports, a team that currently runs in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship's LMP2 class. They have also run CrowdStrike Racing's SRO America operation, although that was suspended back in July due to the CrowdStrike update that led to a massive Windows outage.
They also restore and repair historic race cars.
Riley was announced as part of the IMSA Hall of Fame Class of 2024 back in January. He was in Georgia to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as part of the season-ending festivities just a couple of weeks ago. The picture above was from Oct. 12 prior to driver introductions for the Motul Petit Le Mans.
We at Frontstretch send our condolences to the Riley family.
- The Short Track Super Series was at Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, N.Y. last night for the Hard Clay Finale. Stewart Friesen started from the pole and led early and often to win the
50-lap feature and take home a check for $10,000.
Matt Sheppard was second, then Anthony Perrego and Billy Pauch Jr. Alex Yankowski was fifth.
With only two races remaining, Sheppard currently has a 66-point lead over Friesen. Perrego is third, then
Mat Williamson and Jack Lehner.
Photo of Bob Riley is courtesy of our own Phil Allaway.
