IRL Switch to Ethanol Highlights Fuel’s Performance, Says NCGA (3-23-07)

When the green flag drops Saturday evening at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, one of the biggest changes in motorsports won’t be seen or heard by the fans or the drivers. All the cars participating in the 2007 IndyCar® Series will be powered by 100 percent ethanol.

The Indy Racing League’s (IRL) switch to the clean-burning, renewable fuel was announced in 2005. Ethanol will replace methanol, which has powered the race cars for four decades. The switch to 100 percent ethanol follows a successful 2006 season, in which the IRL used a fuel blend containing 10 percent ethanol.

National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) Ethanol Committee Chairman Bruce Noel, sees the switch as proof of ethanol’s practicality as fuel. “Anyone who’s concerned about the performance attributes of this homegrown fuel will, no doubt, rethink their position as this exciting year begins in motorsports,” Noel said.

IRL senior technical director Phil Casey said the switch to ethanol will be smooth. “Our cars won’t sound differently, smell differently or run differently than they have in the past,” he explained. Casey noted that tests have shown there are no technical barriers to running the high-performance, 600 horsepower engines on the corn-based fuel.

The 2007 IndyCar schedule includes 17 race dates, highlighted by the Memorial Day-weekend running of the historic Indianapolis 500. The open-wheeled cars regularly reach speeds of 200+ miles per hour.

The championship racing circuit is no stranger to ethanol. In 1927, Leon Duray drove an ethanol-fueled car in the Indianapolis 500.