Motorsports

Racing on ethanol: It's all about business for now

It's also about cleaner, domestically produced fuel. IRL has switched.

By BRANT JAMES
Published May 26, 2006

Paul Dana knew better than most that he wasn't going to get what he wanted unless someone else did too.

He had his selfish reasons for convincing the ethanol industry to sponsor his attempt to land a ride in the Indy Racing League in 2002. But the industry had its reasons too. And after being unsuccessfully lobbied by the ethanol industry in the mid '90s and 2001 to green up its operation by switching to the clean, bio-based fuel, the IRL gave in for reasons not completely selfless. First ethanol comes in as a sponsor, then as official race fuel, "part of the family," Ethanol Promotion and Information Council executive Tom Slunecka said.

Exactly two months after Dana died at age 32 in a morning practice before the 2006 season-opening race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the events he helped set in motion have taken on an even larger importance.

His friends and family would like to think Dana's legacy will be racing's and later society's realization that using a cleaner-burning, renewable, domestically produced fuel such as ethanol is the right way to live. But it was more about ethanol being good business. If the fuel is ever to be used in NASCAR, which is slated to switch from leaded to unleaded fuel in 2008, it will be for the same reasons.

"Really, it's like a lot of things in racing. It's a marketing agreement with ethanol," IRL director of engineering Jeff Horton said. "Obviously, in the world right now, in the U.S. right now anyway, gas prices are going up. We saw it as a good marketing exercise to get the IRL's name out there in a green-conscious way and ethanol had a product we could use. They're in the same process of trying to get their name out there as an alternative fuel, so it looked to be a good partnership, and that's the real reason."

That's not quite the simplistic, noble legacy Dana's friends had in mind, but Dana understood that.

"It was the sum of that business relationship and the outside PR for the league that got them to switch the fuel," Dana said in an early March interview with the Times outside his transporter. "The IRL sees the plus side of the publicity."

Benevolent results sometimes come from selfish interests. Henry Ford - who once designed a car that ran solely on ethanol, by the way - helped support the five-day work week in part because it allowed time for recreation, including driving his product.

NASCAR, pressured by the Environmental Protection Agency and watchdog groups for its use of leaded gasoline, will switch to unleaded fuel as part of its "car of tomorrow" program in 2008 at the latest. The series experimented with alcohol-based fuel blends in the years before Unocal left as official supplier two years ago, but according to Nextel Cup vice president of competition Robin Pemberton, the new mix degrades the synthetic fuel-carrying bladders.

Pemberton said ethanol remains a farther-off option despite the industry's lobbying. He said NASCAR would not necessarily want ethanol to come in as a sponsor first, as in the IRL.

"We're looking at a lot of different options right now, but right now the best option with our unleaded is Sunoco GTX260," he said. "We have a fuel partner that's working on it with us. Right now it doesn't look like ethanol will be a first step."

Slunecka said he'll be ready when NASCAR is ready. He thinks that should be soon.

"As they move to unleaded, they could bring in a 10 percent blend with little or no mechanical changes," he said. "We're ready to take on the challenge if they're ready to advance to a more environmentally advanced platform."

Switching from methanol to a 10 percent ethanol blend this season and a full ethanol supply in 2007 was a much simpler proposition for the IRL, and made for positive coverage even before spiking gasoline prices and global warming fears heightened the national consciousness about our use of fossil fuels.

Because IRL engines already burned alcohol, unlike NASCAR engines, the switchover involved changing a few piston and combustion chamber designs. And even though ethanol can be made from a litany of bio sources including potatoes and brewery waste, its automatic association with corn works well for a series based in Indianapolis.

"It plays very well in the Midwest," said IRL president Brian Barnhart.

The ethanol industry hopes to use the racing-generated publicity as a bridge to the consumer market, and auto manufacturers are gradually reacting to public interest in alternative fuels. Certain General Motors trucks can use an 85 percent ethanol blend, but the fuel is not yet widely available. Slunecka insisted, however, that ethanol's mission is more about change than dollars.

"I'm sure many fuel industries would like to have this position today," he said. "But I think the ethanol industry is here today because of their leadership, less about commerce."

But if no one's buying, no one's changing.

[Last modified May 26, 2006, 00:51:15]