Riley Technologies DPG3 Dominates Daytona With Eighth Consecutive Win

Riley Technologies DPG3 Dominates Daytona With Eighth Consecutive Win

Moves past Porsche record with consecutive chassis wins

Photo courtesy GRAND AM

Daytona Beach, FL (1 February 2012)— You only get one chance to make a first impression, and the all-new Riley Technologies MK XXVI DPG3 nailed it this weekend by dominating the 50th Anniversary Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian led a Riley sweep of the podium as John Pew, Ozz Negri, AJ Allmendinger, and Justin Wilson took Riley to its eighth consecutive Rolex 24 victory.

A name that is already synonymous with victory, the win further solidified the Riley reputation as Riley Technologies broke Porsche’s record for consecutive chassis victories.

Fighting the team all the way to the finish was the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport entry of Ryan Dalziel, Lucas Luhr, Allan McNish, Enzo Potolicchio, and Alex Popow. A spirited battle for the lead between McNish and Allmendinger with over two hours remaining in the race saw the duo making side to side contact at full speed on the oval, with both Riley entries continuing to the finish unscathed.

Completing the Riley Tech podium sweep was the No. 6 Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian Ford-powered entry. The second-generation DP design, driven by the youngest line of of racers in the event with Michael McDowell, Felipe Nasr, Gustavo Yacaman, and Jorge Goncalvez, finished less than one minute behind the winning entry of the sister Mike Shank machine. The No. 6 had been the highest qualifier of the previous generation designs.

The weekend opened with the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Riley scoring the pole in qualifying and the Riley machines were once again the class of the field, leading 711 of a new DP-era record 761 laps with a total of 22 different drivers leading the race. The victory also marked the 11th Rolex 24 At Daytona overall race victory for a Riley-designed machine in the last 17 years, with Riley-penned machines also having numerous class victories to the firm’s credit.

In addition to sweeping the top six positions overall, Riley Technologies also showed well in the 44-car GT class field scoring two top-10 results with the No.70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 of James Hinchcliffe, Sylvain Tremblay, Jonathan Bomarito and Marino Franchitti finishing the race in sixth and the No. 40 Dempsey Racing Mazda RX-8 of Joe Foster, Patrick Dempsey, Tom Long, Charles Espenlaub and Charles Putman finishing 10th.

Adding to the impressive weekend outing was the fact that the final Riley DPG3 design was not approved by GRAND-AM until late in the off-season, creating a narrow timetable to have everything completed. By making the most of the vendor partners and team relationships that Riley Technologies enjoys, a tremendous group effort brought the ultimate reward with the big race finish.

“This 50th Anniversary Rolex 24 was a huge event, so to introduce a new design and have it finish 1-2 in its very first race is outstanding,” said Riley Technologies Vice President Bill Riley. "We had a late start on this project and our shop and our composite vendors have worked non-stop for the last two months preparing for this race. The teams did not have all of their parts in hand until they were at the track in Daytona. Having a team run a second-generation DP right to the podium was also very cool. Congrats to Mike Shank and his entire group for just an incredible performance, all weekend long– a great accomplishment after a lot of hard work. Everyone had such high expectations for this race, and I think that the quality of the racing was some of the best we’ve seen. We are very excited about the 2012 GRAND-AM season, and this was the best way possible to kick it off.”

2011 marked Riley’s eighth consecutive Manufacturer Championship, and Riley’s DP designs have 85 wins to their credit, including eight consecutive Rolex 24 At Daytona victories.

The firm will look for continued success in Daytona Prototype, Rolex GT and Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge competition as GRAND-AM next heads to Barber Motorsports Park March 30-31.
Notes:

For more information or questions, please contact: Bill Riley, (704) 663-6319 *302

For additional information: www.rileytech.com
Media Contact: Matt Cleary, Sunday Group Management
media
317-908-2975

About Riley Technologies:
Riley Technologies has an extended legacy of success, developing competitive on-track products for the Rolex Sports Car Series, the American LeMans Series, the USAC Gold Crown Series, and the Japanese GT Championship Series.

About Siemens:
Riley Tech has long relied on Siemens PLM Software to help design and develop their race-winning machines. NX software, Siemens PLM Software’s digital product development solution which includes computer-aided design, -manufacturing and -engineering (CAD/CAM/CAE) applications, is the preferred development software. NX Software was cited as a driving force behind Riley taking a sixth straight Daytona Prototype Manufacturers championship in 2009 before kicking the 2010 season off with a win at Daytona International.

RileyWins2012Rolex24.pdf