Daytona III: TRV season finale preview

TRV Motorsport hopes to race car on Sunday, sell it on Monday.

TOLEDO, Ohio, Oct. 29 - Car salespeople say motorsports revolves around the axiom, "Win on Sunday; sell on Monday," referring to the increase in traffic on the showroom floor after a particular model of car wins a major race.

Drivers Tom Volk, R.J. Valentine and the rest of the TRV Motorsport team plan on giving new meaning to the term "test drive" on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway, and they're hoping that some national TV time during a Sunday race broadcast will bode well for their marketing endeavors too.

Volk, of Blissfield, Mich., and Valentine, of Boston, will showcase the Toledo, Ohio-based team's Riley & Scott in the Grand-Am Finale at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Sunday, Nov. 10 with the hopes of finding a buyer for the black and yellow #95, which is currently tenth in the national point standings in the top class, Sports Racing Prototype.

Since the Grand Am Rolex series is introducing new cars for the 2003 season, race cars like TRV's will have to find a new home in a vintage series like the Historic Sportscar Racing series (HSR) or on a collector's showroom floor. Due to budget constraints the TRV Motorsport team has competed on a limited schedule for the last two years, but its members wanted to be on hand for the end of an era for these types of cars at the season finale. After Volk and Valentine drive TRV's Riley & Scott Chevy in the three-hour race, which will be broadcast live on SPEED Channel beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern time, the car will be put up for sale.

The team's sponsors at Daytona will be Supreme Exhaust Systems Products, Racer Parts Wholesale, SPEEDCOM, SPEEDCAM, Formula 1 of Boston (a state-of-the-art karting facility in Braintree, Mass.) and the MBA Group.

"I really think the Riley & Scott Mark III will go down in history as being the best customer-oriented car ever in prototype racing," Volk said. "Our car is chassis number six, and I think 15 or 20 of them were built. The Riley & Scott Mark IIIs are sturdy, well-sorted-out race cars that are relatively easy to work on and they don't have stress points that fail. The chassis and the components are reliable for a long time, and they can easily accommodate different engine configurations.

"Our car was one of the Oldsmobile Aurora factory Riley and Scotts before we purchased it," Volk added. "It won several races when it was using Oldsmobile power, and it has been a consistent top-10 qualifier at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Some of the other well-known drivers who have competed in it under my ownership include Lyn St. James, Ross Bentley, Jeret Schroeder and Barry Waddell."

Between the Dyson team and the Riley & Scott factory effort, Riley & Scott Mark IIIs won seven of the 10 races enroute to the 1996 championship. The chassis that was to become the TRV Motorsport car was used in the sprint races that year, according to Riley & Scott's Bill Riley.

"It won two races in '96; Texas and Sears Point," Riley said. "Wayne Taylor and Jim Pace drove it at Texas, and Wayne Taylor and Scott Sharp drove it at Sears Point."

Peruvian ace Eduardo Dibos ran this particular car as part of a two-car effort fielded by the Riley & Scott factory in 1997, and it finished third both in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona and in the 12 Hours of Sebring. General Motors ended the Aurora program in this type of racing in 1997 but Riley & Scott continued to be successful, with most of its headlines coming through the accomplishments of Dyson Racing. Riley & Scott won the manufacturer's championship in the Grand American Road Racing Association in both 2000 and 2001.

The action at Daytona begins with testing and practice on Wednesday, Nov. 6. Qualifications for the top groups will be held from 12:35 p.m. to 12:50 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 9. The three-hour season finale begins at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 10. All the action will be on Daytona's 3.56-mile road course, which uses the banked tri-oval of the superspeedway and non-banked infield sections.

For more information on the series, see www.grandamerican.com. For more information on the team see www.trvmotorsport.com and www.restartcommunications.com, www.rileyscott.com.

-trv/lm-