After fixing the engine issues that plagued the team at their last event, Watkins Glen, Riley Racing returned for the season finale of the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

A problem in the first practice session kept the team off-track, but was quickly fixed in time for Jameson and AJ Riley to get on-track for the second practice session. Jameson started the session to dial-in a setup for qualifying and the race, with AJ driving the second half of the session.

AJ qualified the DRIVEN Clothing Company Riley Racing Mazda RX-8 in 21st place and would have his work cut out for him at the start of the race the next morning.

The 2 1/2 hour endurance race started well for AJ, with the driver quickly gaining 3 positions within the first 2 laps. The team was on a one-stop, no tire change strategy to keep the car on track as much as possible, whereas most other teams stopped twice during the race and took new tires. AJ drove the RX-8 hard and kept his nose clean, allowing  the team to run in 4th place for much of the first half of the race, and pitted at halfway during a full-course yellow.

Jameson got in the car and back into the race in 19th place before reshuffling from future pit stops of other teams. With multiple passes and lap times consistantly quicker than the cars ahead, Jameson had the Riley Racing Mazda RX-8 into 9th place before one last full-course yellow. The race restarted with only a few laps to go, and Jameson could only pass one more car before the checkered flag to finish in 8th place.

The team will continue work on the Mazda RX-8 to prepare for the 2012 season and will be pushing next year to achieve their first podium finish.

As the 2011 season comes to an end, Riley Racing would like to thank all of its fans and partners for their continued support!

Endurance racing truly is a team effort, and an effort at which everyone at Riley Racing works hard with passion and determination.

With only one week between the Lime Rock and Watkins Glen event, the Riley Racing crew was glad to leave Lime Rock Park with very little damage and few repairs. The Continental Tire 150 weekend at Watkins Glen International started extremely well, with Jameson Riley (@jamesonriley) going 2nd quickest again in Practice, demonstrating the true potential of the Riley Racing Mazda RX-8.

After encountering some traffic in qualifying, AJ Riley (@ajriley) qualified the Mazda RX-8 in 16th. Unfortunately, due to a minor technical infraction (non-performance enhancing), the Riley Racing Mazda RX-8 was pushed to the back of the field and would start the race last in 34th.

AJ Riley took the Riley Racing Mazda RX-8 out for final practice a few hours before the race, and immediately encountered a major problem with the throttle. The Mazda RX-8 had very little power at full-throttle, but if the driver backed off the throttle just a little, a majority of the power was available. Needless to say, the Riley Racing drivers had a very difficult task to drive then entire 2 1/2 hour race having to “guess” the optimal throttle position that would allow for the most power.

After an early pit stop during a full-course yellow, AJ Riley had the Mazda RX-8 up to 3rd place from 34th. Because of the earlier pit stop, the team had to pit again for fuel and a driver change to get Jameson Riley in the car. In the end, Jameson made up a few spots after the reshuffle from the pit stops, and was able to bring the car home in 15th place. A great finish for the team considering they started dead last and ran the entire race with throttle issues.

Having not raced with the Riley Racing Mazda RX-8 since the first race of the 2011 season at Daytona, the team spent the last few months developing the car and engine with great success. In the first practice session, Jameson Riley (@jamesonriley) was 2nd fastest of 33 cars, only 4 tenths off the record lap around Lime Rock Park for a Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge ST competitor.

AJ Riley (@ajriley) qualified the Riley Racing Mazda RX-8 4 tenths of a second off the pole time, putting the team in 7th place for the start of the 2 1/2 hour Memorial Day Classic. This was AJ’s best qualifying performance in the Mazda RX-8 and put the team in a great starting position for the race.

With high temperatures and plenty of sun early on the morning of the race, the Riley Racing drivers had their work cut out for them for 2 1/2 hours. AJ Riley started the car in 7th, and at the 1 hour mark, he had the car up to 2nd place. Just as AJ was heading through the Downhill to come into pit lane, the #26 Freedom Autosport Mazda MX-5 car hit the rear of our car hard enough to put AJ into a spin in one of the fastest corners at Lime Rock. AJ did an excellent job to keep the car off the walls, but had to wait for the long train of cars to pass before he could get over to pit lane. Because of the poor driving of one of our competitors, we dropped to 20th place.

Jameson was able to fight the car back up to 15th, but due to an extra fuel stop, the Riley Racing Mazda RX-8 finished in 19th.

The Riley Racing Mazda RX-8 showed some great potential at the Memorial Day Classic, and the team is looking forward to the Continental Tire 15o at Watkins Glen in one week’s time.

With a newly installed Bosch ECU and some other updated components, we went into the first race of the 2011 Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge with high-hopes for success and more laps led at Daytona International Speedway. Our weekend started extremely well, and all of the new components worked exactly as we wanted. After two great practice sessions and some minor modifications to our updates, AJ Riley (@ajriley) got in the car to qualify in the afternoon. Unfortunately AJ had a minor fire inside the car when he had just started his flying lap and was forced to abandon his qualifying effort. The fire was quickly extinguished, and no one, including the car, was hurt.

AJ started the race in 26th place out of 41 ST class cars, and quickly made progress to get us into the top 20. After about an hour and 10 minutes of great driving, AJ had gotten the DRIVEN Clothing Company Riley Racing Mazda RX-8 up into 10th place, and brought the car in for fuel and a driver change. His brother, Jameson Riley (@jamesonriley), got into the car and with quick and great work by the Riley Racing crew and was back on track in 10th place. With some GS class traffic and a lot of race left, Jameson maintained a consistent pace, ready to take advantage of any mistakes or opportunities with the cars in front.

With our fuel strategy, we were hoping for a full-course yellow, so that we could come in a top-off our fuel and reduce the amount of spots we would lose on track. We got the full-course yellow…but it was for our car. Race done. We had a mechanical failure that required Jameson to park the car on-track.

Look for the DRIVEN Clothing Company Riley Racing Mazda RX-8 in the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.

Bringing momentum with us from the first race of the season where we lead 23 laps, the 4th race of the season (our 2nd) looked to be promising for a podium finish. Virginia International Raceway (VIR) is a familiar track for both Riley Racing (@RileyRacing) drivers, but unfortunately the team quickly ran into engine issues.

After qualifying, but before the start of the race, the team was able to find a vacuum leak in the intake system, which was a quick and fairly simple fix. Because of the engine issues, AJ (@ajriley) qualified the car, significantly down on power, in 28th in-class, which put us starting second-to-last.

AJ was making a great charge through the field, lapping much faster than most of the drivers in front of him. After only 30 minutes, AJ had managed to move up to 16th position, and was continuing to move forward. Unfortunately, AJ made a mistake and was caught out by the excessive rubber chunks and “clag”, leading to a spin and rearward contact with a guardrail.

AJ was able to continue on, and at the first full course caution, he brought the car in for fuel and a driver change. Jameson (@JamesonRiley) got in the car, but had to stay in pit lane for a few extra minutes to allow the crew to repair some of the rear damage.

Even with the damaged car, Jameson was able to lap faster than the leaders, and made up a lot of track position and time thanks to another yellow flag. Even though Jameson was lapping quickly, a fuel pump failed as a result of the crash, and our race was over 20 minutes before the checkered flag.

We will be making the repairs and improvements necessary, and will be at the next event at Lime Rock Park, our home track, on May 28-29.

The weekend started with a brake issue: no ABS. The ABS system in our car controls the power braking, and without it, we have far too much braking, resulting in easy lock-up. The problem was quickly fixed, and we were up to speed immediately.

With only one practice session left before qualifying, Jameson set out for his first time driving at Daytona International Speedway’s infield course, trying to learn the track and find setup changes that would need to be made for qualifying later that afternoon. AJ got some seat time as well at the end of the second practice session.

Qualifying went well, with Jameson setting the 5th fastest time for the ST class in our Mazda RX-8. We encountered some fuel issues during qualifying, which prevented us from going any faster, but we were happy with our qualifying time for our first time at Daytona.

Friday morning practice went even better, as we made some vital setup changes, and Jameson went fastest for the session with a 2:09.9 lap time, which would be our fastest time for the weekend. AJ started the session to get much needed track time and was able to get some good laps in before the race.

Jameson started the race, and quickly got to the front of the field, leading 23 laps of the 66 lap event, second most laps led only to the eventual winner. Because of our reoccurring fuel issues, Jameson had to pit for a second fuel stop, while other teams only required one stop. This put us out of contention for the win, or even a podium. Unfortunately, our race ended with a rookie driver spinning AJ on the last lap, resulting in a different car hitting AJ and damaging our car.

Although the race ended with a crash, we still made great progress throughout the weekend, and led many laps. It was a great effort from the entire Riley Racing crew and drivers, and we look forward to the next event.