Lakeville, Conn. (2 June 2010)—  Riley Technologies (a division of SEA STAR GROUP, INC. Stock Symbol SGQZ) had another strong race weekend this Memorial Day as GRAND-AM returned to Lime Rock Park. The event, which featured the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race on Saturday ahead of the debut running for the Daytona Prototypes along with the Rolex GT machines on Monday, was set under ideal conditions with a healthy crowd on hand.

Fans on those green hillsides witnessed a fantastic GT class shoot-out, which saw the Riley Technologies-based Mazda RX-8 built by SpeedSource Engineering once again set the pace as the car to have, with the machines taking a dramatic 1-2-3-4 finish.

Driving the MazdaSpeed Motorsports Development No. 68 that was only completed days before the race weekend started, Adam Christodoulo and John Edwards gave the car an ideal debut outing as the two youngsters emerged as race winners for SpeedSource Engineering.  

"I think the last 10 minutes of the race were the longest 10 minutes of my life,” said Edwards. “I had pressure from behind, so I was just trying to stay ahead and not making any mistakes. This was our very first test day - I think that's all you need to say about SpeedSource and Mazda."

Leh Keen and James Gue scored second place in the Dempsey Racing RX-8 ahead of championship points leaders Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal.

The Turner Motorsport BMW-powered M6, which utilizes a Riley Technologies chassis, also showed flashes of speed at Lime Rock Park, but the team had to settle for an eighth place finish after falling a lap down early in the race.

The Daytona Prototype class race was no less exciting, as the championship-leading squad of  Ganassi Racing’s Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas were knocked out early in the race.  A strong late-race rally saw Ryan Dalziel move to just seven points back in the drivers championship standings after he and co-driver Mike Forest combined for a run to second place at the finish in a BMW-powered Riley, with the Michael Shank Racing Ford-powered Riley taking third.

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Lakeville, CT  (29 May 2010)—Just months after Trevor Hopwood and Adam Burrows made Kia Motorsport history with a race finish in Kia’s GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge at Daytona International Speedway, there was a new breakthrough on Saturday as Hopwood led the first laps in Kia history at Lime Rock Park with the No. 12 Kia Motors/Infinity Audio Kia Forte Koup for Kinetic Motorsports.

Adding to the positive home race weekend was the race result after two and a half hours of racing. The two former champions came home fifth at the finish, the best result to date for Burrows and Hopwood in Continental Tire competition at Lime Rock Park and another improved best finish for the two with Kia power since joining Kinetic Motorsports factory Kia program.  

The duo, who started the race from 11th on the grid, made the right call ahead of the race as changing conditions brought into doubt which Continental Tire would be best for the 1.5-mile circuit.

Despite getting knocked off course early by a competitors over optimistic passing maneuver, Hopwood  rallied to move up into top five in the early stages of the Street Tuner (ST)-only race. Hopwood’s leap to the front of the pack came as he got a great launch off a corner and  scythed into the lead heading into the confidence-required Downhill corner.

Turning the car over to Burrows on a mid-race yellow flag pit stop, Hopwood was all smiles as he took off his helmet.

“It was awesome to put the Kia up front, and even better to do it here at Lime Rock Park.” said Hopwood. “We had a lot of Kia dealers here this weekend, so it was great to meet them and then go out and have such a strong run. Thanks to Lee and all the guys at Kinetic--the car was great under braking. And that was key because once you got in traffic, you had to make the most of what you had going into turn one if you wanted to move up. This was a great weekend, and I think should be strong again at Watkins Glen.”
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