Visit Florida Racing Closing in on Multimatic-Riley LMP2 Deal
Multiple sources have indicated to Sportscar365 that the Troy Flis-owned team is closing in on a deal with the Canadian-American constructor for its planned single-car effort in the WeatherTech Championship next year, with the goal of securing a factory-backed effort with Mazda.
It’s understood a deal to run an AMG DPi with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 powerplant and bespoke bodywork fell through in July, which has delayed the team’s 2017 program, which was set to originally be announced last month.
An option to remain with GM, with its yet-to-be-announced Cadillac DPi program, is understood to not have been pursued any further.
When reached by Sportscar365, team owner Troy Flis said that a deal with Multimatic-Riley has not been finalized and that he’s waiting to secure the full chassis-engine package, plus 2017 drivers, before making an announcement.
“I have meetings this week with Visit Florida and some of the stuff that’s time dependent on them and how we’ll be announcing stuff," Flis told Sportscar365.
“We’ll hopefully have that done this week. So hopefully at COTA we’ll be able to get something out there."
It’s unclear if both Ryan Dalziel and Marc Goossens will return to the team, particularly Dalziel, who is also contracted to Tequila Patron ESM, which has been linked to returning to IMSA competition full-time in 2017.
Goossens, meanwhile, has been a longtime Riley development driver and would be a logical choice to be retained, should Visit Florida Racing opt for the Riley Mk. 30 LMP2 chassis. John Dagys/Sportscar365