Riley Confirms Management Structure for Triple IMSA Effort

Riley Motorsports has confirmed team managers across three IMSA series for next year, with team veteran Ben Levite shifting exclusively to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and new team addition Russ Ruedisueli overseeing Riley’s Michelin Pilot Challenge and Ferrari Challenge operations.

Fourth-year Riley team manager Levite will focus solely on running the team’s two-car WeatherTech Championship LMP3 program while Ruedisueli has joined the Riley organization as team manager for the Pilot Challenge Toyota GR Supra GT4 and Ferrari Challenge programs.

“We have enjoyed some solid growth with our racing programs the last few seasons and further expanding with a pair of experienced and dedicated team managers is another step forward in our progress,” said team president and owner Bill Riley.

“Ben Levite has done a great job managing the operations of several different Riley Motorsports teams in recent years and will continue to operate a multi-car team in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

“Russ Ruedisueli is a longtime colleague and teammate that brings decades of high-performance vehicle management and a passion for all things racing to Riley Motorsports.”

The 2021 season will be the third straight year that Riley will compete in three different IMSA racing series.

It continues its WeatherTech Championship program with a new two-car Ligier JS P320 Nissan LMP3 team in addition to debuting the new Supra GT4 for the team’s third year of GS competition in Pilot Challenge. 

While lineups have been set for both LMP3 entries, drivers for the new Toyota effort, to be run under the Gazoo Racing Latin America banner, have yet to be announced.

Ruedisueli joins Riley Motorsports after retiring from a more than 30-year career with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles a few years ago.

He has an extensive high-performance vehicle and auto racing background within FCA and managed the factory support for multiple motorsports championships in NASCAR, NHRA, SCCA and IMSA.

The IMSA success was in partnership with Riley Technologies and Riley Motorsports that collectively built and maintained the SRT Dodge Viper GTS-R and GT3-R cars that won numerous titles and championships.

“I worked with Russ back when we ran the championship-winning Viper program in GTLM, and I had a lot of respect for him and everyone at SRT, the entire FCA corporation on how they ran things, and the overall demeanor within the company,” Riley said.

“When a need came up for additional management at Riley Motorsports, Russ was a great choice.”

Ruedisueli’s arrival complements Levite’s established relationship with Riley Motorsports, which he joined in 2012 as a data engineer on the Viper GTS-R GTLM program.

Levite was promoted to team manager prior to the 2018 season, taking the reins of the WeatherTech Championship program while also overseeing the expansion into Pilot Challenge that same year.

“This will be Ben’s fourth year as a Riley Motorsports Team Manager and he has done a great job on our WeatherTech and GS programs the last three seasons,” Riley said.

“He will be primarily focused on our two-car LMP3 assault in WeatherTech with Gar Robinson and Jim Cox. That’s a fairly tall order to run two cars at these major endurance events, so that will be his main focus along with a few other special projects.”