Riley Technologies Kyushu 300 report

RILEY TECHNOLOGIES CHASSIS SCORES FIRST VICTORY IN JAPAN

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (October 30, 2006) -- It should come as no surprise to anyone associated with sports car racing that a chassis manufactured by Riley Technologies has once again found it's way to victory lane. Given their long history of success in all forms of motorsports, Riley Technologies, in partnership with Mooncraft Co. Ltd of Japan, recorded its first victory in the GT300 Division of the Super GT Series in Japan earlier this month. This is yet another indication of their commitment to not only winning, but supplying their customer teams with the most highly engineered chassis and parts available.

With nine races that make up the JGTC/Super GT series, the Kyushu 300 was round eight of the 2006 AUTOBACS SUPER GT on October 14, 2006. Starting from the pole position in the GT300 class, the No. 2 Privee Zurich Shiden was driven by Hiroki Katoh and Kazuho Takahashi. Maintaining a sizable lead throughout the event, the team was never seriously challenged for their first victory of the season. With the victory, the No. 2 team of Takahashi and Katoh moved into first position in the season's driver ranking with 86 points. With only one race remaining, they lead the second place team by five points.

"It was very satisfying to hear about the team's victory in Japan," said Riley Technologies Vice President Bill Riley. "We were excited to see how the car did this season and of course to get this team's first victory in that series. As a company, we have been fortunate to see the results of all the hard work from our employees and this is due to their talents. It's a matter of pride for all of us at Riley Technologies to make sure our customer teams are fully supported no matter where they are competing."

Having been in business developing race cars since 1975, as well as operating their own in-house race team since 1985, Mooncraft Co. Ltd. of Japan formed a relationship with Riley Technologies earlier this year with hopes that a Riley-built chassis would help separate their race team from the rest of their competition. Through this working relationship with Mooncraft, Riley Technologies provided a specifically designed and engineered chassis that was entirely fitted with Riley Tech's suspension parts and uprights, while Mooncraft took advantage of their own in-[IMAGE]house wind tunnel to develop the body for the car.

"They didn't want to do all the work developing a chassis, but they wanted to develop their own body as they have their own wind tunnel and they have a great carbon shop from what I understand," added Riley. "They were looking for a company that could deliver a chassis and do all that development, so all the success we had with the DP (Daytona Prototype) car and sports cars in general; they came to us for that."

In an effort to build on their recent success with Mooncraft and bring their chassis expertise to other race teams in the Far East, Riley Technologies will utilize Mooncraft's superior reputation by having them serve as their distributor of chassis' and parts in that part of the world.

"Our companies are structured in much the same manner in that we base everything off engineering and technology first," Riley explained. "We both utilize in-house race teams to make our products superior in quality for the customers we service. We are very excited about the relationship we have formed with Mooncraft and look forward to continuing to build it into the future."

-credit: Riley Technologies