Ben Keating

Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R, driven by Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Marc Miller at the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours

Ben Keating (born August 18, 1971 in Tomball ) is an American entrepreneur and racing car driver .

Entrepreneur

Ben Keating was born in Tomball, a suburb of Houston , the fourth largest city in the United States of America. After attending elementary schools, he graduated with engineering degrees from Texas A&M University in College Station . After graduating, he joined his father's car company and became sales manager there. In 2002 he started his own business and now sells vehicles of the Chrysler , Dodge , Jeep and Ram brands at ten locations in Texas .

In Keating's company, the Dodge Viper and the successor model SRT Viper were and are being prepared for racing. A partnership with the Danish car designer Henrik Fisker has existed since 2015 . Keating helped develop the active suspension on the VLF Force 1 , a supercar based on the Dodge Viper. The first 50 copies of the car presented at the North American International Auto Show 2016 in Detroit are expected to be sold through Keating sales outlets.

Racing career

Ben Keating's racing career was sparked by a Christmas present from his wife, who gave him a weekend with a racing instructor at a racetrack in 2005. In 2006 he had his first races in the Viper Racing League . In 2007 he became a regular starter in this racing series, the overall ranking of which he won in 2007. After finishing second in 2010, he secured the championship in the Dodge Viper Cup in 2011 .

In 2011 he made his racing debut in both the Grand-Am Sports Car and the American Le Mans Series . By the end of the 2015 racing season, Keating had driven 48 in various sports car series and celebrated eight class wins. He finished sixth overall in the GTD class of the United SportsCar Championship 2015 . In 2015 he contested his first 24-hour race at Le Mans , but retired prematurely after a defect in the Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2015	Riley Motorsports-TI Auto	Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R	Jeroen Bleekemolen	Marc Miller	failure	malfunction
2016	Murphy prototypes	Oreca 03R	Jeroen Bleekemolen	Marc Goossens	Rank 34
2017	Keating Motorsport	Riley MKXXX	Jeroen Bleekemolen	Ricky Taylor	Rank 47
2018	Keating Motorsports	Ferrari 488 GTE	Jeroen Bleekemolen	Luca pride	Rank 28
2019	Keating Motorsports	Ford GT	Jeroen Bleekemolen	Felipe Fraga	Rank 32 and class win

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2013	TRG	Porsche 997 GT3 Cup	Damien Faulkner	Craig Stanton	failure	malfunction
2014	Riley Motorsports	SRT Viper GT3-R	Sebastiaan Bleekemolen	Jeroen Bleekemolen	failure	accident
2015	Riley Motorsports	Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R	Sebastiaan Bleekemolen	Jeroen Bleekemolen	failure	malfunction
2016	Riley Technologies	Dodge Viper GT3-R	Marc Miller	Jeroen Bleekemolen	Rank 33
2017	Riley Motorsports Team AMG	Mercedes-AMG GT3	Mario Farnbacher	Jeroen Bleekemolen	16th place and class win
2018	Riley Motorsports Team AMG	Mercedes-AMG GT3	Luca pride	Jeroen Bleekemolen	Rank 19
2019	Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports	Mercedes-AMG GT3	Felipe Fraga	Jeroen Bleekemolen	Rank 23

Web links

Commons : Ben Keating  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Office website of Ben Keating's company
• Ben Keating at the Driver Database
• Ben Keating at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Force 1 V10 at the Detroit Auto Show 2016 (English)
2. ↑ About the Force 1 V10
3. ↑ Force 1 V10
4. ^ Dodge Viper Cup 2010
5. ↑ Dodge Viper Cup 2011