BRILLIANCE

Just in time for Turkey Day – in the Nov. 26 proclamation of which U.S. President No. 1 George Washington mentioned "God” in the first, second and third person no fewer than 13 times, by the way, but which did not become a true national holiday until Franklin Delano Roosevelt “assumed the position” (nice ring to it, huh?) in the 20th century – below comes the first installment of what went far beyond what this author thought it might be.

As Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás once noted and this person since took seriously, “history” is an important part of present life. (Um, no, Tom, “Santana” would be the guitar player.)

When this author got into researching the last four-or-so decades of a guy Grand-Am competition director Mark Raffauf (who was first lieutenant to John and Peggy Bishop and later solely oversaw that period of sportscar racing known as the sports’ “Golden Period”) once characterized as “the most brilliant, prolific sportscar designer of all time,” Bob Riley and his accomplishments shined even more so than even this ardent sportscar fan had known, especially when chronologically placed.

The first installment and those to come isn’t Riley’s complete biography, a true rendering of such being so great that it can only be told in a large book.

For now, enjoy the turkey, ham, roast , vegan dinner or a bit of the ol’ fish and chips (don’t worry, old chaps, most Americans don’t “get” Guy Fawkes Day, either) mixed with a little history in helping give thanks to those who came before.

 

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Inasmuch as Bob Riley’s father specialized in quickly moving crude oil from wellhead to refinery – being basic to eventual facilitation of car movement – it seems only appropriate that Riley would later specialize in moving refined petroleum through quick cars.

Born in Texas and first schooled in southern Louisiana, Riley traveled widely with his father throughout the regional heart U.S. oil production, as an adult Riley since has continued his traveling ways enmeshed in motorsports, traveling the world in pursuit of building and running even faster cars before he most recently settled in Mooresville, N.C.

Riley can scarcely believe time has so swiftly passed in his four years there.

“It just doesn’t seem like we’ve been here that long,” the Riley Technologies patriarch said as he led a reporter through the company’s 46,000 sq. ft. inner sanctums.

Race-car designer, builder, constructor and chassis fine-tuner, Riley Technologies – to most just “Riley” – in 2006 departed its historic 19-year Indianapolis home (wherein Pratt & Whitney previously built World War II-era aircraft engines) and moved to its newer, custom-constructed Mooresville facility within which various shops have capabilities covering just about every aspect of race car design, fabrication, construction and repair.

“It’s a beautiful area,” Riley said of the relatively tranquil Mooresville area, located about 25-miles north of Charlotte.

A particular race form rarely mattering, many of those in need of a fast race car have long sought Riley, above with a Riley MkXI Grand-Am Daytona Prototype chassis, for outside-of-the-box engineering skills which have conceived a variety of winning prototypical solutions that recently even included a unique, stand-alone generator having nothing to do whatsoever with racing, except possibly that which involves the pursuit of energy’s better mousetrap.

Though Riley has met a wide range of unique engineering challenges over its many years, the company’s “first love” remains its primary focus: motorsports.

In a career that got its first big break when Riley answered a simple classified Car Craft magazine want-ad that would send him to Europe with the now legendary 1960’s Ford GT40 program, the “give-or-take” octogenarian has for decades since played an integral role in one race car running roughshod over another.

Nowadays, along with son Bill Riley – who Bob Riley himself characterized as “the best designer I’ve ever seen, and not just because he’s my son” – Riley Technologies is expert in race-car construction, race-team management and race-day engineering.

Making like a tire and rolling down the road, Bob and Bill Riley, respectively the company’s corporate director and president, have over the years stayed enmeshed in the automotive racing culture by moving with it, figuratively and physically.

The Charlotte area today is home to a bevy race teams, especially those in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck series, but also include those like 2010 Rolex 24 At Daytona winner Action Express Racing – accomplished in a “Riley,” of course – and a gaggle of support industries that have grown up around them.

“Before we even moved here we were doing chassis work for folks like Robert Yates and Richard Childress. It just seemed logical to move closer to what already was a good customer base,” was Bob Riley’s response when spied on an administrative hallway wall was a photograph one might consider out of character in a facility more often connected with sportscar racing than stock cars: Yates Racing’s No. 28 Havoline Ford at Infineon Raceway.

Proudly hanging but only to be seen by those who escape the entrance lobby’s guest seating are dozens of photographs that line the company’s first and second-floor administrative hallways and mark decades of accomplishment, each screaming thousands of words about Riley’s varied and successful racing history.

“Oh, we’ve had some failures, too,” Bob Riley chuckled.

THE FASTEST RILEY

Nearly each Riley Technologies’ hallway step yielded an image that helped encapsulate a phase in the Riley family’s nearly 50 years of professional labor around, atop, in and underneath race cars of all descriptions, including a Bonneville Salt Flats wheel-driven, flying-mile land speed record-chaser, Lessman Racing's Riley MkIV AA Streamliner.

Thus far falling just short of a record-setting (roughly) 460 mph top speed and a 420 mph average that would etch team-owner and driver put Ron Lessman among the Salt Flat’s speediest, the Riley designed AA Streamliner runs a compressed natural gas-fueled Ford V8 power plant.

“I believe Roger (Lessman) could get that record if he’d just use a RoushYates engine,” Riley insisted, ever a “Roush Man.”

MARK-ING TIME

Given the Rileys’ almost golden touch in race-car design one might fairly wonder just how many times they haven’t been successful, especially when considering the stunning numbers posted by Bob Riley’s most notable renderings, among which include various pole- and race-winning AJ Foyt Coyote Indy Cars and the MkI sports coupe chassis – the underpinnings for Jack Roush’s irrefutable “Monster of the Midway” – which dominated the Sports Car Club of America’s 1980’s Trans-Am decade.

“Well, it could be said that David Hobbs inspired that Trans-Am program,” Riley said,

“When he was awarded the 1983 Trans-Am championship trophy in Las Vegas he had some pretty uncomplimentary things to say about Ford.”

“A couple of us Ford guys were sitting at a table and about to fall asleep – you know how banquets are – when he (Hobbs), who drove a Chevrolet for DeAtley (Motorsports), just blistered Ford in his acceptance speech.

“So, we kind of looked at each other and it wasn’t long before (Ford Racing head) Michael Kranefuss secured the funding to put a competitive product on the track.”

Next: “Putting On A Pair of Capris”

For now, it’s time to start on the first of many turkey sandwiches, the likes of which no “sub” place will ever match.

Later,

DC