IRL: Riley & Scott delivers first cars

DAY 3 -- JULY 24

At 10:29 a.m. today, the first Riley & Scott Mark V chassis, model IRL97, serial number 001, rolled off the transporter in the CMS garage area. The car is numbered 28 and was delivered to Kelley Racing for driver Mark Dismore. The "MK V" designation means it's the fifth major race car design project for the Riley & Scott firm. Bill Riley, chief design engineer for the project, said he hopes to have Dismore and John Paul Jr. of PDM Racing in the new cars for the Aug. 17 Pennzoil 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway.

"We really got going when the Kelleys jumped on board," Riley said. "We kind of took our time because of the IRL constructor rules. We'll talk this weekend with Kelley and PDM but we plan to start testing right away."

The car features larger more rounded sidepods than the existing Dallara and G Force cars and a different rear cowling design. Dismore sat in the completed car for the first time this morning.

"I sat in it in the shop but that was just the tub," Dismore said. "This is the first time I've seen it all together. I'm really looking forward to this, the whole situation, being able to work with Bob Riley and Mark Scott. We can win races. We WILL win races as long as we get a little bit of testing.

"This car to me looks a lot slicker, like it'll go through the air easier. There are things about it that G Force and Dallara will take a look at...maybe we shouldn't have brought this thing out till New Hampshire.

"Bob Riley spent a lot of time in the wind tunnel with the car and I know we'll get good downforce. The cockpit...your feet are a little further back and he's done that for safety reasons. The width -- it feels to me down around your hips, you have more room."

Riley & Scott have deposits for nine of the cars. PDM is scheduled to get car 002, Metro Racing Systems and driver Stan Wattles get car 003, Nienhouse Motorsports and driver Mike Shank get car 004, Kelley gets car 005, Intercar Motorsports and driver Gary Peterson get car 006 and cars 007-009 go to an unannounced team. ***

TelX Sports will feed a satellite uplink 11-11:15 a.m. EST Friday with practice and qualifying highlights and interviews. The coordinates are SBS 6, transponder 14. ***