With 54 races to its credit, Riley Technologies’ MkXI No. 001 chassis is at the top of the Daytona Prototype class – at least, as of the end of 2009 season.
No. 001 didn’t have much wiggle room, given that Riley chassis No. 004 at the time followed closely behind with 53 starts through the end of last year’s 12-race Daytona Prototype schedule.
In third and fourth places as the “most-raced chassis” are Riley chassis Nos. 026 and 005, respectively posting 49 and 48 starts. Tied for fifth place’s 47 starts are Doran Engineering’s JE4 No. 003 and FABCAR FDSC/03 No. 002.
The most frequently raced DP chassis officially started its life at the 2004 Rolex 24 At Daytona as the No. 01 CompUSA Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus-powered DP – all but thrown together during the two months preceding the famous twice-around-the-clock race, held annually at Daytona International Speedway.
Though the No. 001 Riley would win four 2004-season races and by season’s end also help claim a championship for drivers Scott Pruett and Max Papis, it was all but retired at the end of the 2004 season – destined for but one final Ganassi-team race before leaving the stable.
Target Chip Ganassi Racing IRL drivers Darren Manning and Scott Dixon teamed with Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Casey Mears to drive what had become the No. 03 Target Lexus-Riley DP to a sixth-place finish in the 2005 Rolex 24.
Relegated to backup status for the remainder of the 2005 season, it was acquired at the start of the 2006 season by Mark Wilkins and readied by Canadian-based AIM for its debut in the mid-summer Brumos 250 on the 3.56-mile DIS road course. In an inauspicious start, Canadians Wilkins and James Hinchcliffe finished 21st in the No. 61 Lexus-powered Riley.
Staying with Lexus for the car’s next 14 races spread over the remainder of 2006 and through the 2007 seasons, Ford-power was placed in the car’s engine bay for the start of the 2008 season, during which Wilkins and Brian Frisselle teamed to claim 10 top-10 finishes, winning two races and finishing fifth in 2008 DP driver championship points.
Still bearing the No. 001 Riley plate, AIM Autosport’s Ford-powered No. 61 arrived for today’s Grand Prix of Miami with new sponsor Pacific Mobile’s hot blue/white paint job. Wilkins, paired in 2009 with Burt Frisselle, older brother of Brian, qualified the car seventh in the 35-car field.
In the wake of Papis’ departure following the 2004 season, Ganassi paired defending champion Pruett with Mexican Luis Diaz for 2005 in Riley Technologies chassis No. 004, which months before began its racing life in the 2004-season finale at California Raceway (now “Auto Club Speedway”) with Scott Dixon and Darren Manning droving the No. 8 CompUSA Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus-Riley to a third-place finish.
After its debut at the Rolex 24 on 5-6 Feb., 2005, as the No. 01 CompUSA Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus-Riley – with Ryan Briscoe joining the endurance team – Diaz and Pruett later drove the car through the 25 June, 2006, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course race, after which the team, having only four days between races, opted to employ Riley chassis No. 002 chassis at the 29 June, 2006, Brumos 250 at Daytona International Speedway.
The No. 002 Riley chassis continued as the No. 01 CompUSA Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates Lexus-Riley until the end of the 2006 season, with the team returning to the No. 004 Riley chassis at the 2007 Rolex 24 and at the end of which Pruett, Juan Pablo Montoya and Salvador Duran would capture a set of Rolex Daytona watches.
Following a second-place driving championship points finish for Pruett at the 2007-season’s end, No. 004 was scheduled for one final race to run before a retirement from frontline duty – yet before which produced another set of Rolex Daytona “timepieces” (as Rolex would prefer) at the 2008 Rolex 24 at Daytona for drivers Pruett, Memo Rojas, Montoya and Dario Franchitti.
Switching afterward to Riley chassis No. 010 – which began its life with a first-place finish at the 2008-season’s second race at Homestead-Miami Raceway – “Good Ol’ No. 004” would be called back to duty after Pruett abruptly, severally and completely ended Riley MkXI chassis No. 010’s use on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008, in death-defying fashion during a promoter’s test day at the newly opened New Jersey Motorsports Park.
Having at the time all but completely wrapped up the 2008 driving championship, Pruett and Rojas could’ve waited to nail the championship by merely starting the next but season-ending race at Tooele, Utah’s Miller Motorsports Park. Instead – in a call made by Pruett – the TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix (y José) Sabates team put forth a sustained effort to race at New Jersey’s new Thunderbolt Raceway.
Leaving Thursday evening on a run to the team’s Indianapolis shop, team members arrived to dump what remained of Riley chassis No. 010 into their curbside recycling bin, removed No. 004 from mothballs, loaded it on the TELEX trailer and headed back to Millville, N.J., arriving in time for some Saturday practice beforehand. The following day, Pruett, Rojas and No. 004 finished ninth.
Riley Mk XI chassis No. 004 has since been Pruett, Rojas and the No. 01 TELMEX team’s mainstay, even having been fitted with a BMW engine for the 2010 season after previously carrying a Lexus through 53 races at the end of the 2009 season.
After AIM Autosport’s decision to sit out the 2010 Rolex 24 (but for that race lending regular-season drivers Wilkins and Frisselle to Michael Shank Racing’s No. 60 Crown Royal Ford-Riley), with today’s start of the Grand Prix of Miami in Homestead, Riley MkXI chassis Nos. 001 and 004 have each compiled 55 races and together stand tied as the most-raced Daytona Prototype chassis.
If at the dawn of Daytona Prototype racing the Rolex Sports Car Series’ main mission was to provide cost-effective racing, it has met that goal, said one of the series’ most frequent competitors.
“Insofar as the cost of ownership is concerned, one shouldn’t look at the up-front cost of a race car as much as what that car costs over time, as measured by the number of races in which it competes,” said Target Chip Ganassi Racing director Mike Hull, who since the 1990’s has overseen the organization’s successful IndyCar Series program and, since beginning Rolex Series competition in 2004, the organization’s similarly successful Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype program.
“If getting the most you can from a car is the barometer used to measure cost effectiveness, then Grand-Am is certainly meeting its goal,” Hull added.
Now in its eighth season of competition, 20 individual DP chassis, each having raced a minimum of 30-or-more races, have through the 2009 season’s conclusion logged a combined 840 races since the class’ debut at the 2003 Rolex 24 At Daytona. (Omitted from the above were totals coming from an additional 22 DP chassis, each having recorded between 20 and 29 races.)
DP CHASSIS HAVING MORE THAN 30 STARTS
(NOTE: As of Oct. 31, 2009; Arranged as greatest to fewest number of races, overall and individually; “Entrants” are shown as officially recorded by Grand-Am)
54 - Riley MkXI No. 001 (No. 61 AIM Autosport, 41; No. 01 CompUSA Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, 12; No. 03 Target Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates, 1)
53 - Riley MkXI No. 004 (No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, 29; No. 01 CompUSA Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, 24)
49 - Riley MkXI No. 026 (No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing, 26; No. 99 Bob Stallings/Riley-Matthews, 14; GAINSCO/Blackhawk Racing, 9)
48 - Riley MkXI No. 005 (No. 6 Michael Shank Racing, 28; No. 6 Playboy Racing/Mears-Lexus-Riley, 7; No. 9 Mears Motorcoach/SpeedSource, 5; No. 6 Graydon Elliott Fusion Racing with MSR, 4; Michael Shank Racing/Mears Motorcoach, 2; No. 22 Alegra Motorsports, 2)
47 - Doran JE4 No. 003 (No. 77 Feeds the Need/Doran Racing, 21; No. 77 Doran Racing, 14; No. 6 Michael Shank Racing, 12)
47 - FABCAR FDSC/03 No. 002 (No. 09 Spirit of Daytona Racing, 17; No. 58 Brumos Racing, 12; No. 59 Brumos Racing 59, 12; No. 58 Red Bull - Brumos - Goodyear - Kendall, 4; No, 45 Gunnar Racing, 1; No. 29 Brumos Racing, 1)
46 - Riley MkXI No. 002 (No. 02 CompUSA Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, 11; No. 02 New Century Mortgage Chip Ganassi racing with Felix Sabates, 14; No. 19 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, 11; No. 01 CompUSA Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, 5; No. 02 Target Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, 3; No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, 1; No. 02 Waste Management Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, 1)
45 - Riley MkXI No. 014 (No. 75 Krohn Racing, 15; No. 66 Krohn Racing/TRG, 14; No. 76 Krohn Racing 76, 13; No. 22 Alegra Motorsports, 3
44 - Riley MkXI No. 011 (No. 75 Krohn Racing, 15; No. 67 Krohn Racing/TRG, 14; No. 76 Krohn Racing 76, 13; No. 76 Krohn Racing, 1; No. 51 AIM Autosport, 1)
42 - Riley MkXI No. 030 (No. 59 Brumos Porsche, 23; No. 59 Brumos Porsche/Kendall, 17; No. 59 Brumos Racing 59, 2)
40- Riley MkXI No. 025 (No. 11 SAMAX, 15; No. 11 CITGO Racing by SAMAX, 9; No. 45 Orbit Racing, 7; No. 2 SAMAX, 6; No. 2 SAMAX-BMW, 2; No. 45 Victory Junction-Orbit Racing, 1
39 - Crawford DP03 No. 002 (all Howard-Boss Motorsports
39 - Crawford DP03 No. 003 (entrant was Spirit of Daytona Racing, alone, but one car wore No. 07 while the rest wore No. 09)
39 - Doran JE4 No. 004 (No. 81 Rx.com/G&W Motorsports, 11; No. 8 Rx.com/Synergy Racing, 15; No. 8 Synergy Racing, 12; No. 8 EMC Mechanical/Synergy Racing
39 - Riley MkXI No. 003 (No. 3 Southard Motorsports, 27; No. 10 SunTrust Racing, 12)
37 - FABCAR FDSC/03 No. 001 (No. 59 Brumos Racing 59, 26; Brumos - Goodyear - Kendall, 11)
35 - Doran JE4 No. 002 (All wore No. 54 under entrants Kodak-Bell Motorsports, 21; Bell Motorsports, 14).
34 - Crawford DP03 No. 009 (Always under No. 23, the car's entrant primarily was "Alex Job Racing," but through three different entities: Alex Job Racing, 21; Alex Job Racing/Emory Motorsports, 12; 10th and M Seafoods Alaska, 1)
32 - Riley MkXI No. 027 (Luggage Express Team Sigalsport BMW, 14; Rum Bum Racing, 12; Sigalsport BMW, 4; Sigalsport, 2
31 - Riley MkXI No. 021 (No. 10 SunTrust Racing, 28; No. 5 Beyer Racing, 2; No. 9 Penske-Taylor Racing, 1)
Later,
DC
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