Despite media attention regarding an “incident” between him and driver Kyle Busch on Saturday, Richard Childress was happy to come by the American Ethanol tent Sunday and voice his support for corn farmers and the domestically produced fuel.

“I’m a farmer myself and I understand the livelihood of farmers and I think it’s great for America what they are doing to help us not to have to depend on as much foreign energy,” he said. “I hope some day we can run it all on ethanol.”

Childress believes there is a good possibility that NASCAR could go to an even higher ethanol blend than the 15% started this year. “We tested the 30 and it ran really well but I think NASCAR wants to ease into it with fuel injection coming,” he added.

The American Ethanol paint job decorated the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet driven by Clint Bowyer at Kansas Speedway on Sunday.

Listen to my interview with Richard Childress here: Richard Childress Supports Ethanol

See all the race photos here: American Ethanol at NASCAR Sprint Cup STP 400

It was the first time Iogen Energy’s cellulosic ethanol was blended into an E85 fuel for the demanding American Le Mans Series (ALMS) presented by Tequila Patrón. The 500 gallons of cellulosic ethanol supplied were produced from wheat straw at Iogen Energy’s world leading demonstration facility in Ottawa and fueled the Drayson Racing “Lola-Judd” prototype in the race.

According to ALMS, Drayson Racing was riding a wave of momentum entering the race with two-time Sebring winner Emanuele Pirro who had the No. 8 Lola Coupé in second place early. However, at three and a half hours into the 12 hour race, the alternator failed and eventually the team finished fourth in Le Mans Prototype One (LMP1) class and twelfth overall in a field of thirty-four.

“In the critical Michelin® Green X® Challenge, the team finished as the highest non-diesel powered entry. Taking third in this important environmental award was the result of the team’s use of second generation, cellulosic E85 ethanol and its efficient combination of Judd V10 engine and Lola’s closed cockpit chassis.”

The second round of the ALMS season will be April 17 in Long Beach, California.

American Forests

“Since its inception, the ALMS has been at the forefront of developing green initiatives and solutions in motorsports,” said American Le Man Series President and CEO Scott Atherton.”We are very proud of our efforts with the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy as they relate to our on-track efforts. Our involvement with American Forests enables us to contribute to similar solutions away from the race track and is another way the American Le Mans Series can advocate for a greener tomorrow.”

With the implementation of the Green ReLeaf campaign, the Series will begin every race weekend by displaying a Survivor tree in the paddock. The Survivor Elm – donated by the Series and its teams through American Forests’ Historic Tree program – will encourage fans to do their part for the planet. For every three trees planted, roughly one ton of carbon will be sequestered, allowing for over 1,666 tons of CO2 to be taken out of the atmosphere overall, and every acre of trees planted (approx. 340-490 trees) by the Series will offset about the amount of CO2 produced by driving a car 26,000 miles, or about twice the amount the average driver drives per year.

This initiative is part of the Series’ Michelin Green X Challenge, a season-long green competition.

The edition of “Fill up, Feel Good” features comments from Doug Robinson of the International Motor Sports Association; GM Racing program manager Doug Fehan; Corvette Racing team driver Johnny O’Connell; and Team Ethanol Indy Car Ryan Hunter-Reay.

The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) has been the leader in bringing “green” fuels to motorsports and the organization was instrumental in the IndyCar Series switch to 100 percent ethanol last year and the Corvette Racing Team usage of cellulosic E85 racing fuel this year.

The podcast is available to download by subscription (see our sidebar link) or you can listen to it by clicking here (5:00 MP3 File):
epic-podcast-4-11-08-racing.mp3

The Fill Up, Feel Good theme music is “Tribute to Joe Satriani” by Alan Renkl, thanks to the Podsafe Music Network.

“Fill up, Feel Good” is sponsored by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council.

Drivers Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta won their second consecutive class victory on the waterfront street circuit in St. Petersburg, Florida.

“This was our first race running cellulosic E85 ethanol, and we had great performance and great fuel efficiency,” Gavin said. “We could have done the entire race on one pit stop. There were question marks about that from some people, but it’s been proven it’s a great fuel to run and it’s doing a bit for the green issue.”

The reigning champions won the GT1 division in the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg with a 4.754-second margin of victory in their No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R over Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen in the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R.

“I think we demonstrated not only to our fellow competitors but also to the world of racing that E85R is a viable and powerful fuel,” said Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan. “We’re very pleased with how it turned out.”

Photo Credit: Dan Boyd, American Le Mans Series

Doug Robinson, executive director of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), which is the sanctioning body of the American Le Mans Series, says allowing the use of 85 percent cellulosic ethanol in that racing venue is part of their “green racing” platform that helps test alternative fuels and create public awareness.

“In rolling out that green racing strategy, the first step was to look at the renewable fuels and the greenhouse gas emissions,” Robinson said.

As a result, Robinson says, they set into motion a plan to develop a high performance, high octane, gasoline-based racing fuel as a baseline and allow alternative fuels into the series.

“Our base fuel has ten percent ethanol, much like many of the pumps that you buy fuel for your road car,” he said. “Then this year we started with an E85 fuel and we aligned ourselves with the first company to be producing second generation, cellulosic ethanol made from wood waste from the Black Hills forest.”

That company is KL Process Design Group of South Dakota, which has been contracted by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, the leader in bringing “green” fuels to motorsports, to provide cellulosic E85 racing fuel (E85R) for Corvette Racing.

The Team Ethanol transporter carrying the #17 Team Ethanol Indy Car arrived at St. Pete earlier this week, fresh off a 7th place finish in last week’s season opener under the lights in Homestead.

Team Ethanol driver Ryan Hunter-Reay is a big believer in ethanol and using it in racing to prove performance and environmental benefits. “Racing is the forefront of what goes on in the automotive market,” Hunter-Reay said. “So, it fits for racing to be going in this direction.”

This weekend’s American Le Mans Series and IndyCar Series races highlighting ethanol will be broadcast globally. ABC will televise the one-hour, 55-minute Acura Sports Car Challenge starting at 1:30 p.m. ET on April 5. The IndyCar Series Honda Grand Prix at 2:30 pm ET on April 6 will be broadcast on ESPN.

(Photo credit Steve Snoddy, Indy Racing League)

“GM is the leader in the production of flex fuel vehicles, we produce over 2.5 million and we are the largest producer in the world,” Fehan said during a teleconference on Wednesday. “Corvette has always tried to position itself as a leader in GM and within the racing community and this was a chance for Corvette again to demonstrate that leadership.”

Fehan says they had some challenges perfecting the fuel cell for using E85 in the race car, which kept them from using the fuel in the ALMS Twelve Hours of Sebring but they have resolved that issue. Comparing E85 to gasoline, Fehan says there is a difference in fuel mileage “but from a power and performance standpoint, it’s virtually the same.”

The Corvette Racing C6.R driven by Johnny O’Connell, Jan Magnussen and Ron Fellows captured ninth overall and first in the 12 hours of Sebring in Florida, the season opener for the American Le Mans Series.

O’Connell agrees that performance with the cellulosic E85 is identical. “There has been absolutely no loss in performance at all (running the E85 in the Corvette) it’s as amazing as it’s always been,” he says. Because of the lower fuel mileage he says they do have to carry a little more fuel which makes the car a little heavier at the start, but “we’ll make that up on the other side” when the car is lighter.

O’Connell is especially pleased with the environmental benefits of running E85. “We all want to be as green as we possibly can and recognize that we do need to change things to keep racing in our culture as we go forward,” said O’Connell.

Corvette Racing has a technical partnership with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council to spotlight E85 in the ALMS, and the cellulosic E85 for the race is being provided by KL Process Design Group of South Dakota. Two other teams – the Intersport Racing Lola and the Drayson-Barwell Racing Aston Martin – are also running on E85 in the ALMS series.

Listen to part of the press conference here: corvette-conference-edit.mp3

Several race car drivers were on hand to pump gas and sign autographs including Joel Feinberg and Chris Hall both of Primetime Race Group racing the GT2 Team Dodge Viper Competition Coupe.

The American Le Mans Series has chosen E10 as an “official ethanol-enriched fuel” of the series, the first time a street legal renewable fuel has been used in any endurance format. Also approved by the series is cellulosic E85, which will run in some of the cars this season.

Meanwhile, Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles Bronson this week announced new fuel quality standards for gasoline blended with ethanol.

These changes specifically target selected fuel quality standards for gasoline blended with 10 percent or less ethanol. This will allow even more stations in Florida to sell ethanol-blended fuel.

This “Fill up, Feel Good” podcast features Reece Nanfito of EPIC and representatives from KL Process Design Group of South Dakota, which has the first commercial cellulosic ethanol facility operating in the United States that will now be providing the fuel for American Le Mans Series race cars.

The podcast is available to download by subscription (see our sidebar link) or you can listen to it by clicking here (6:30 MP3 File):
epic-podcast-1-31-08.mp3

The Fill Up, Feel Good theme music is “Tribute to Joe Satriani” by Alan Renkl, thanks to the Podsafe Music Network.

“Fill up, Feel Good” is sponsored by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council.

Located just 1 mile South of Upton, Wyoming, the plant was engineered, constructed and is operated by KL Process Design Group. This is the result of six years of development efforts between KL and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

“It is now possible to economically convert discarded wood into a clean burning, sustainable alternate motor fuel” said Randy Kramer, president of KL Process Design Group, a design firm that has been working in corn ethanol. “We’re proud of what this small company has accomplished, and believe that our design will be a cornerstone from which we can build our country’s renewable fuel infrastructure providing a better source of motor fuel, starting today.”

KL’s cellulosic ethanol plant is converting waste wood into a renewable fuel. The current production facility is utilizing soft woods, but successful test runs have occurred making use of waste materials such as cardboard and paper.

KL also announced today that the cellulosic ethanol it will be producing at the Wyoming plant will be used to fuel the American Le Mans Series Corvette Racing team running on E85.

Listen to an interview with Randy Kramer here:
kramer-interview.mp3

“We could really find no greater stage to have the first use of cellulosic ethanol than the American Le Mans Series,” said Reece Nanfito, senior director of marketing for EPIC. “Obviously this is going to be a great demonstration that this fuel is available here and now, it is not a fuel that is five years or ten years down the road. The next generation of ethanol has really arrived today with this announcement.”

Tom Slunecka, Vice President of Business Development for KL Process Design Group, says providing cellulosic ethanol for the Le Mans Series brings it one step closer to consumer use.

“The reason that we brought the very first, very valuable gallons of this fuel to the American Le Mans Series was to demonstrate the power that this fuel has at home with every consumer,” Slunecka said. “Because the American Le Mans Series cars are the closest to production-style cars in the world of racing the relevancy of performance here is immediate and direct to that of consumers.”

Listen to Nanfito and Slunecka make the announcement in a press conference today from Sebring, Florida where during the fuel will be used first during the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on March 15.
epic-KL-announcement.mp3

KL Process Design Group of South Dakota will supply the American Le Mans Series with cellulosic E85 racing ethanol for the 2008 season. The fuel, produced from waste wood, will be used for the first time during the season opener — Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on March 15. Corvette Racing will be the first team to use the cellulosic-based flex-fuel ethanol in competition.

Scott Atherton, president and CEO of the American Le Mans Series. “The American Le Mans Series was recently recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the only motorsports entity to meet the criteria for ‘green racing’. Introducing cellulosic E85 racing ethanol to our series with one of our most noted championship teams does nothing but reinforce our commitment to be the global leader in green racing.”

Through the marketing partnership with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC), the American Le Mans Series will drive awareness of ethanol among consumers through its use of both E10 and E85 ethanol.

“This is an exciting time for the ethanol industry,” said Reece Nanfito, senior director of marketing for EPIC. “Consumers want more choices at the pump, and although challenges remain, cellulosic ethanol is no longer a dream, but a reality.”

During the announcement at the North American International Auto Show earlier this month, Chevrolet general manager Ed Peper said, “Like the Corvette Z06 E85 concept car that will pace the 2008 Indianapolis 500, the use of E85 ethanol fuel by America’s premier production sports car racing team in a high-profile, high-tech racing series like the ALMS shows that Chevy is continuing to lead by example.”

“By showcasing the capabilities of E85 ethanol before an audience of knowledgeable and technically astute race fans, we can demonstrate the benefits of a renewable fuel that helps to reduce dependence on petroleum, helps to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, and helps to create greater diversity in energy supplies,” Peper said. “Of course, performance is what counts in racing, so E85 ethanol’s higher octane rating than gasoline wasn’t overlooked by the Corvette Racing engineers.”

Corvette Racing has formed a technical partnership with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) to spotlight E85 in the ALMS.