A New Team For Ethanol
Ethanol is moving up in the racing world. Paul Dana, driver for Team Ethanol, will be jumping into a Rahal Letterman IndyCar® Series car this year. Dana announced the switch today during an Indy Racing League (IRL) press conference. “This is a huge step up for us from a competitive standpoint because Rahal Letterman has such an excellent track record,” Dana said. “My teammates will be Buddy Rice, who won the Indy 500 in 2004, and, of course, Danica Patrick, who was Rookie of the Year last year.”
Rahal Letterman Racing (RLR) is co-owned by 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal and television talk show host and comedian David Letterman. Team Ethanol is sponsored by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC). Executive Director Tom Slunecka said they could not be more thrilled with the switch to one of the best and well-known IRL teams.
“The Rahal Letterman team, having produced Indy car winners and having the sensation in race car and sports media Danica Patrick, is just a fabulous way for ethanol to get its name out to that many more people.”
Click here to listen to the full Rahal Letterman/Team Ethanol announcement with Bobby Rahal, Paul Dana and Tom Slunecka.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (304.0KB)
3 Comments
Gary Dikkers
Cindy,
Can you please explain how the fact that IRL will use ethanol is supposed to convince the drivers of ordinary cars that ethanol is a good thing?
IRL uses ethanol for specific reasons, and none of those reasons apply to ordinary cars.
* Ethanol does have a high octane which means their high-performance V-8s can use high compression ratios without worrying about premature detonation. (Their 8-cylinder, 32-valve, high-performance motors have compression ratios as high as 15:1.)
* But ethanol’s high octance rating means nothing in an engine that has a compression ratio of (9:1 or 10:1 and that runs just fine on 89-octane fuel.
* Race cars also use methanol and ethanol because both fuels mix easily with water and it is much easier to extinguish an alcohol fire after a crash than to extinguish a gasoline fire.
* But again that reasoning doesn’t apply to the average commuter/passenger car.
So please explain, what’s the big deal about IRL using ethanol? They had used methanol for years for exactly the same reasons, and no one ever got excited about that.
Cindy
The big deal is promotion of a fuel that could help the United States become less dependent on foreign oil. That is probably the primary issue here. Ethanol is a home-grown fuel, made in the USA – and even if it is currently made with the help of fossil fuels it is a step in the right direction.
C. Scott Miller
I think there is a seachange in attitude taking place in the Blue states with regard to ethanol. The FORTUNE article is a BIG deal because that’s where many investors get their cues. The IRL endorsement of ethanol as a safe, high octane alternative to oil that runs on combustion engines is unexpected news for the average car owner. It is bound to change their perception over time.
Comments RSS feed —