2011 ALMS race in Long Beach (Photo by John Rettie)
Historically auto racing has often lead the way in development of new technologies that have improved road cars. Sadly in the past few decades this has rarely happened. Spec race series, such as the current IndyCar and NASCAR, might produce some good racing but the glamour of seeing different cars and technologies compete against each other has disappeared.
There is, though, one exception — the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) and, obviously, the 24 hours of Le Mans race itself.
At a press conference in Washington DC today Scott Atherton. ALMS President and CEO told journalists, political leaders and government officials that “ten days ago at Road America, renewable fuel use by our race cars reduced petroleum consumption by 48 percent compared to traditional all-petroleum racing fuel – an ALMS record.” Atherton went on to say that “according to the Department of Energy, if such a result was translated to the U.S. vehicle fleet, the nation could decrease imported oil dependency by half, enabling us to keep $175 billion every year inside our economy.”
2011 ALMS race in Long Beach (Photo by John Rettie)
ALMS, with its auto industry and government partners, says it is pursing development of new standards for what it is calling “Green Racing 2.0”. It says Green Racing is “a unique ”umbrella concept” that provides a real-world, competitive, and reward-based proving ground for many of the technologies being developed to help achieve tomorrow’s automotive efficiency requirements. Green Racing is also a concept that was developed with the direct involvement and contribution from the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and SAE International.”
It is covered by an official SAE International protocol, which stipulates that in order for a racing series to qualify as “Green Racing”, it must allow for the use of renewable bio-based fuels, multiple engine, fuel and powertrain configurations, as well as regenerative energy technologies that recover and reuse energy.
ALMS says it is already meeting some of these criteria with the Michelin Green X Challenge, which is a competition within all ALMS races that rewards teams that go the farthest, fastest with the smallest environmental footprint for energy consumed. ALMS says its rules makers are actively working with auto manufacturers and government officials to steadily reduce the total energy consumed by the race cars.
2011 ALMS race in Long Beach (Photo by John Rettie)
Incidentally, the next round in the 2011 American Le Mans Series presented by Patron is this coming weekend. The Baltimore Grand Prix is one of only two temporary street races in the series – the other being at the Long Beach Grand Prix. You can watch the main race on Sunday on ABC while qualifying and Saturday’s racing will be streamed live on ESPN3.com.
Related posts:
- ALMS Takes New Approach to CBS Coverage
- JaguarRSR Confirms Junqueira, Da Matta and P.J. Jones for 2011 ALMS Season
- Truly Thrilling Weekend for Racing Fans
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