Riverside Museum Creates Peter Bryant Award

The Riverside International Automotive Museum (RIAM) decided yesterday to set up an award in the memory of late motorsports engineer/designer Peter Bryant, with the first presentation to take place during the "Legends of Riverside II" racing film festival on March 26.

The trophy, made of free-standing clear plexiglas and a lexan vertical unit with titanium sheet fastened by aircraft grade titanium bolts and aluminum rivets, features a 1/25th scale representation of the Bryant Ti22 Can-Am car.

The award will be given to those worthy, as a means to recognize "Excellence In Engineering, Outstanding Service, and Personal Dedication to

Motorsports," as the trophy’s title plaque reads. The first recipient of the award will get his or her name carved into the trophy.

"Peter was such a wonderful part of our inaugural gathering last year, we really wanted to keep his name associated with the event, so we’ve established an award that celebrates the kind of engineering excellence and enthusiasm that Peter represented," museum director Bruce Ward said.

“Everyone who ever had any contact with him at all will never forget Peter, he was so friendly, so personable, and so excited about his next engineering challenge … We all miss him terribly.”

Peter Bryant was the man who designed and built the Can-Am Titanium Car (Ti 22), one of the most successful adversaries of the McLaren Can-Am cars. The Ti 22 debuted late in the 1969 Can-Am season, at Laguna Seca. It was the first car to feature titanium, which is 80 percent lighter than steel and much stiffer than aluminum, in its construction.

Bryant died on March 30, 2009, aged 71, of an apparent heart attack at his home in Las Vegas.