US constructor Riley to build LMP3 prototype

The design for the new Automobile Club de l'Ouest entry-level prototype category completed at Riley Technologies in North Carolina will be built by Tony Ave's nearby organisation, which already produces a Trans-Am car to the company's plans.

Riley, whose Daytona Prototypes won the Daytona 24 Hours every year between 2005 and '13, sought a partner for the P3 project because it believed that a smaller company would be better able to bring the car to market inside the €195,000 cost cap.

Company boss Bill Riley told AUTOSPORT in October: "It will be tight to do it for the cost-cap. That's why we are working with a smaller organisation with lower overheads that would have a better chance of making it work."

Two-time Trans-Am champion Ave said that the relationship with Riley was the "foundation of Ave Motorsports", which has built 17 AR-1 Trans-Am cars to the Riley design.

"I am looking forward to my next project working with Riley-designed cars," he said.

"Their involvement with our projects always goes past the design stage, with great interaction between the companies over the long haul."

Riley added: "The Trans Am car Ave builds is a winner and we feel his building techniques and skill sets will evolve nicely into the LMP3."

Work on the first of the Nissan-engined cars, which will be known as AR-2s, is expected to begin "in the coming weeks", according to a joint press statement.

Ave, like fellow P3 manufacturers Ginetta and LAS Motorsport, intends to build derivatives for other series and track day use.