24h Le Mans
Last week at the Road Atlanta circuit in the U.S., Jeroen Bleekemolen and Ben Keating began the process of tweaking the Riley Mk. 30 set to represent the American constructor and Keating Motorsports in the LMP2 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
After a first appearance at the 24 Hours in LMGTE Am in 2015 (retirement with the Viper GTS-R), Ben Keating - owner of the largest Dodge Viper dealership in the U.S. - tried out the LMP2 class in 2016 thanks to an agreement with Murphy Prototypes...and he liked it.
The Viper GTS-R having been developed with the help of Riley Technologies, naturally the Texan set his sights on a Riley Mk. 30, designed by way of a partnership between Riley Technologies and Multimatic, one of the four constructors approved to build the new LMP2 chassis.
The Riley Mk. 30 will be making its debut in competiton at the 24 Hours of Le Mans since Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen continue to compete in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in GTD after having traded their Viper, with which they won in the class at Petit Le Mans, for a new Mercedes AMG, allowing the duo to win a new class victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring back in March.
Along with Mario Farnbacher overseas, Keating-Bleekemolen, together now for four years, will be joined at the 24 Hours by an overall winner at the 12 Hours of Sebring and Rolex 24 at Daytona, Ricky Taylor. The American driver will take the start at Le Mans for the fourth time, the second time in LMP2 after 2014 (ninth in the class with Larbre Compétition's Morgan).
Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen will return to the Road Atlanta circuit, which hosts Petit Le Mans, for another testing session this week, as long as the weather is good…
Photo: Jeroen Bleekemolen takes a selfie with the Riley Mk. 30 at the Road Atlanta circuit.
