Bob Riley

By H.A. Branham

This is a case where the hall of fame inductee’s name pretty much speaks for itself. The renowned Bob Riley designed numerous IMSA cars over the years, most notably the Riley & Scott open-cockpit prototypes and later, the Riley Daytona Prototypes. Riley chassis have won seven Rolex 24 At Daytona championships, all with different engines.

Riley’s expertise has benefited a variety of racing disciplines but perhaps none more so than IMSA. That relationship dates to IMSA’s early years which were glorious, in part because of Riley, who built so many cars for so many road racing competitors.

“It's hard to condense his career into something short and sweet,” said IMSA Senior Director of Competition Mark Raffauf. “He probably was directly involved or personally conceived at least 20 significant [designs].

“In my opinion, he is the single most significant American race car designer in history. I could dig up a list of what he made in IMSA and it’s just mind-boggling.”

Journalist and author Jonathan Ingram, who co-wrote The Art of Winning Race Car Design, with Riley himself, writes that Riley’s “emergence from building junkyard hot rods in southern Louisiana to become one of the most inventive designers at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the go-go years of the 1970s (working on A.J. Foyt’s cars, among others) is a saga in itself. From Indy, he moved into his ultimate specialty of sports prototypes, starting with the outrageous, front-engine Mustang GTP. Along the way, he helped recast American GT and Trans-Am road racing with game-changing designs.

“The sports prototypes designed by Bob Riley featured speed and style. His Riley & Scott Mk. III helped sustain the World Sports Car class by regularly beating the Ferrari 333SP. If you wanted to win Daytona Prototype races, the Riley chassis, which won more Grand-Am races and championships than any other make, was your best bet.”

Said Riley: “Racing is an engineering sport and there is always something new to learn and apply to the future generation of cars.”

In 2001, Bob Riley and his son Bill formed Riley Technologies. The company moved its headquarters to Mooresville, North Carolina in late 2006. Riley Motorsports continues to field cars in a variety of classes.

Bob Riley’s longevity is exceeded, though, by his expertise.

“Cars have been a passion since I was a child—the faster the better,” Riley told the Wall Street Journal. “Fortunately, I also had a talent for art, so car design was a natural combination for me.”