Bob Riley, who left an indelible mark on IndyCar and sports activities automotive racing by way of vehicles resembling Coyote Indy vehicles for A.J. Foyt, front-engine Mustang GTPs, the high-downforce Intrepid RM-1, the dominating Riley & Scott Trans Am vehicles and Mk III prototype, and the Riley Daytona Prototype chassis, has handed away on the age of 93.
A 2024 inductee into the IMSA Corridor of Fame in addition to a member of the Motorsports Corridor of Fame of America, Riley’s profession as an engineer and automotive designer stretched throughout a number of racing disciplines. A mechanical and aeronautical engineer, he labored within the plane business and Chrysler’s Area Division Saturn rocket program, whereas constructing race vehicles at dwelling, notably the legendary Lynx System Vee. Constructing race vehicles would quickly change into his calling.
Riley-designed Coyote-Foyt Ford was an IndyCar superpower within the Nineteen Seventies and carried A.J. to his fourth Indy 500 win in 1977.
As an engineer for Ford, Riley contributed to the Le Mans-winning Ford GT MK IV program. A number of years later, he was designing Coyote Indy automotive chassis for A.J. Foyt, together with the automotive which carried Foyt to his fourth Indianapolis 500 win. The 1981 Coyote, Riley’s first full ground-effects Indy automotive, produced a lot downforce the workforce couldn’t discover springs robust sufficient, and needed to lower holes to bleed off a few of the strain.
Riley’s first solo effort in sports activities automotive racing was the front-engine Ford Mustang GTP, an uncommon design in 1983. (See beneath video). Making its debut late within the season at Street America for Zakspeed, the automotive was an instantaneous success with a 1.7-liter Ford Cosworth BDA engine, carrying Klaus Ludwig and Tim Coconis to victory, whereas Bobby Rahal and Geoff Brabham completed third. The automotive’s subsequent outings principally resulted in failure, nonetheless, as a result of fragility of the two.1-liter engine that went into the automotive for the 1984 IMSA GT season.
Riley’s subsequent GTP automotive was the Intrepid RM-1, designed with son Invoice and produced by Pratt & Miller. The automotive was notable for its exceptionally excessive ranges of downforce, which gave it the quickest cornering speeds of any of the GTP vehicles of the period. Powered by a Chevrolet engine, Wayne Taylor gained with the automotive on the streets of New Orleans throughout its 1991 debut season, the chassis’ solely victory.
In 1990 Riley teamed up with Mark Scott to type Riley & Scott. The primary automotive the corporate developed was the Mk I Trans Am chassis that scored quite a few victories within the sequence, and in addition discovered success in IMSA competitors. But it surely was the Mk III World Sports activities Automobile chassis that made the corporate’s identify and dominated the WSC class within the late ’90s, commonly besting even the mighty Ferrari 333SP. Wayne Taylor and Doyle Racing took the primary championship with an Oldsmobile-powered Mk III, adopted by 4 straight championships for Dyson Racing with Ford energy, Butch Leitzinger with two, adopted by a pair for James Weaver.
The Mk III took three of 4 Daytona 24 Hour total victories from 1996-99, one with Doyle and two for Dyson. The chassis would take practically 50 victories, and in addition grew to become the idea for the Cadillac Northstar LMP, and the up to date Mk III C that raced till 2005.
Riley & Scott additionally constructed an Indy Racing League chassis, the Mk V that scored a victory with Buddy Lazier at Phoenix, earlier than the corporate was acquired by Reynard in 1999.
The present firm created by Bob and Invoice Riley in 2001, Riley Applied sciences, constructed the Riley Mk XI. That automotive and its successors gained the Daytona 24 Hours 10 instances from 2005-15 within the arms of Wayne Taylor Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, Brumos, Motion Categorical and Michael Shank Racing. These victories got here with completely different powerplants, together with Pontiac, Lexus, Porsche, BMW and Ford.
Different notable sports activities automotive racing tasks for Riley embrace creating the SpeedSource RX-7s and the Viper GTS-R that ran in ALMS and IMSA GTLM competitors from 2012-14, as properly the Viper GT3-R.
“It’s exhausting to condense his profession into one thing brief and candy,” famous IMSA Senior Director of Competitors Mark Raffauf on the event of Bob Riley’s induction into the IMSA Corridor of Fame. “He in all probability was immediately concerned or personally conceived at the very least 20 vital [designs].
“For my part, he’s the one most vital American race automotive designer in historical past. I might dig up a listing of what he made in IMSA and it’s simply mind-boggling.”
Riley Motorsports continues to compete below the path of Invoice Riley within the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in LMP2 and in GT World Problem America. Chris Dyson is racing with Riley Applied sciences chassis in Trans Am, and the corporate has taken over Kar-Kraft and is constructing a MkIv continuation.
