Team Viper preps for Le Mans
An invitation to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the most prestigious sports car endurance race in the world, is both a great honor and the start of weeks of planning and preparation.
On February 1, SRT Motorsports accepted an invitation from the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) to field two SRT Viper GTS-Rs in the 81st race on June 22-23. Participation in the world’s oldest sports car endurance race is by invitation only.
Fortunately, Bill Riley and his team have experience in moving equipment and personnel across the Atlantic. Mike Croake, the director of product support at Riley Technologies, was in charge of getting everything needed for the two cars to compete in the race transported to France. “Checklists are extremely important,” Mr. Croake said. “Obviously Customs has to have their lists of things that you are bringing over. We’ll take that list, add detail to it, and that will become our checklist. Customs really doesn’t care if the torque wrench is in bin number AF2; they just want to know that we’re bringing it over and we’re bringing it back. You make a list and just check things off. Hopefully, it all gets there.”
Support equipment was sent in a 40-foot sea container on May 6, 2013, on a three-week journey. The two Viper race cars, six engines, telemetry, gearbox assemblies and other parts left on today for Orlando; on arrival, the 15 tons of cars, engines, transmissions, spares, and pit equipment will be loaded on a Virgin Atlantic Cargo plane to Heathrow Airport.
Air freight is around nine times more expensive than shipping by sea, Mr. Croake said. “We’ve broken it basically into two shipments, a 40-foot sea container and then obviously the air freight of everything that we don’t have multiples of. We bought extra stuff like brooms, you buy that, throw it into the container and you don’t have to worry about air freighting it. The race car will be flown over but we did have a spare chassis that we put into the container – God forbid if we need it.”
For Bill Riley, vice president and chief engineer at Riley Technologies, the trip is the highlight of his racing season, despite the logistical concerns and physical demands of the 4,075-mile trip. “When I went there the first time I had goose bumps when I walked in, and I still get those goose bumps when I walk into that track.”
Text provided by Chrysler Communications. Text has been edited by Allpar.
