| Tough MICHELIN GREEN X Challenge Competition Helps Accelerate New Technologies and Energy Sources |
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08/07/2010 12:42 (692 Day 04:20 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- If competition improves the breed, then the MICHELIN GREEN X Challenge is an unqualified success in helping to accelerate bringing new vehicles, technologies and energies to the automotive marketplace.
Six different cars from five teams and four different manufacturers have claimed MICHELIN GREEN X Challenge honors in the first three events of the 2010 American Le Mans Series season. Created as “a race within the race” at each ALMS event, the winners in America’s premier environmental motorsports competition are the cars that travel furthest, fastest, with the smallest environmental footprint.
The 2010 winning cars have used three of the five energy sources approved for ALMS competition as the GTL diesel of Peugeot, the E10 fueled Porsche from Muscle Milk Team CytoSport and E10 fueled Honda Performance Development prototype from Patrón Highcroft Racing have taken the MICHELIN GREEN X Challenge Prototype victories.
On the GT side, second generation E85 fuels have taken a pair of Flying Lizard Porsches and the Corvette Racing team to victory.
Mazda and Dyson Racing are poised to score their first ever MICHELIN GREEN X Challenge Prototype win and the first for the newest ALMS approved energy-biobutanol after finishing third and fourth at Long Beach and Monterey, respectively.
Proving that speed and environmental efficiency are not mutually exclusive, 14 of the 26 MICHELIN GREEN X Challenge awards presented since the inception of the 2009 ALMS season have been claimed by cars that also won their respective classes in the actual race.
"The variety of cars, engines, energy sources, and teams winning MICHELIN GREEN X Challenge awards reflects the prestige of the awards and the level of competition in the ALMS," said Silvia Mammone, Michelin Motorsports manager. "Most importantly this competition is a way that motorsports can help to accelerate the development of new technologies and energy sources."
"Clean diesel technologies, direct injection, better understanding of the demands of new fuels and energies, and the appearance of hybrid technologies are all part of the ALMS and MICHELIN GREEN X Challenge success," said Doug Robinson, a member of the “Green Racing” steering group together with representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency and SAE International.
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