By alley - Mar 27, 2014, 12:41 PM ET

Riley on Viper Le Mans withdrawal

SRT's decision to pull out of the Le Mans 24 Hours was motivated by a desire to focus on its attempt to win the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship in 2014, says Bill Riley.

Riley, whose Riley Technologies team has developed and runs the two SRT Viper GTS-Rs, has elaborated on a

brief statement made by Street Racing Technology boss Ralph Gilles about the withdrawal

earlier this week.

"Le Mans takes a lot of effort and resources, so we just decided that we are going to focus on the U.S. series," he said. "Right now our aim is to try to win races in North American and then go on to try to win the championship."

Riley stressed that the debate over the Balance of Performance in the GTE Pro class did not affect its decision.

"On the BoP side, we were very encouraged by our discussions with the Automobile Club de l'Ouest and the FIA [which jointly write the rule book]," he explained.

Riley said he was hopeful that SRT would decide to return to Le Mans in 2015.

The two Vipers currently lie fourth and fifth in the TUDOR Championship, within eight points of the leading Team RLL BMW.

Originally on Autosport.com