It seems only a short time
ago that a $60 barrel of oil caused great concern among industry
business leaders, politicians and consumers. There are now predictions
that $200 a barrel may be likely. Gasoline prices have escalated to
all-time highs while automobile sales are decreasing at rates not seen
in decades. Combined with higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions,
climate change becomes increasingly apparent.
While The American Le Mans Series will not portend to have a solution for the escalating price of crude oil, it will profess to have a solution for helping the auto industry - and ultimately consumers.
To
further emphasize its commitment to help auto manufacturers find
alternative fuel solutions and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the
American Le Mans Series in concert with the U.S. Department of Energy,
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and SAE International
announced at the North American International Auto Show earlier this
year that it would implement the first ever Green Challenge™ at its signature event - Petit Le Mans, October 4 at Road Atlanta. Officials from those entities will be on hand to present trophies to the winners for that race-within-a-race. In 2009, the Green Challenge™ will include all Series events and culminate in a Green Challenge™ Championship Award made by these three organizations.
In
recent months, members of the aforementioned entities have comprised
the Green Racing Work Group commissioned with the task of creating the
rules, regulations and protocols of that competition in which all race
cars would participate in a competition measuring three critical
criteria:
Performance
Fuel Efficiency
Environmental Impact
"This
has been an interesting and challenging process," said Scott Atherton,
President and CEO of the American Le Mans Series. "With four different
classes of cars, 14 auto and chassis manufacturers, and three different
alternative fuels to take into consideration, a formula of how to
create a fair competition with real time analysis and a format that is
easy to understand and communicate has been very difficult. It has
taken hundreds and hundreds of hours and involved some of the finest
technical minds in the automotive and energy industries."
The American Le Mans Series and internationally recognized Argonne National Laboratory have developed a Green Challenge™ ranking system to be used for all cars competing in the Series. Cars will be ranked by the:
amount of energy they use
greenhouse gases (GHG) they emit
amount of petroleum they displace
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GM has embraced the Series' green focus with its two factory Corvette C6.Rs competing in 2008 on cellulosic E85.
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In
brief, race cars that go the farthest, the fastest with the smallest
environmental footprint for the energy used will get the lowest scores.
The Green Challenge™ point score differs from racing score
totals in that the lowest number wins. Two awards will be given - one
to the lowest score among the prototype classes (LMP1 and LMP2) and one
to the lowest score among the GT classes (GT1 and GT2). Thus, the
Prototype and the Grand Touring (GT) race car that uses the least
energy, the least petroleum and emits the fewest GHGs on a distance and
speed equalized basis will be the winners.
During the 2009 season, those teams will earn the same number of points toward the season-long Green Challenge™ Championship as those earned by the race winners each race in the overall American Le Mans Series Championship. All teams will participate and qualify for the Green Challenge™ and receive points for their Green Challenge™
scores for each race based on the Series' race point structure (i.e.
maximum points for less than four hours is 20; for four to eight hours,
25; and for more than eight hours, 30). The twist, however, for winning
the Green Challenge™ Championship is that each American Le Mans
Series team starts off the season with the maximum number of points
available for all the scheduled races (i.e. - 250 maximum in 2008).
When teams win Green Challenge™ Championship points, they are
deducted from this total. As a result, the points decline for
successful teams over the course of the season with the lowest total at
season's end, winning a Green Challenge™ championship for one prototype and one GT team.
The
aforementioned ranking factors (energy used, GHGs emitted, petroleum
displaced) will be compiled into a single weighted number representing
the car's environmental performance. Race cars that use less energy and
petroleum and produce fewer GHGs will score low. All measurements and
calculations will be done on a well-to-wheel (life cycle analysis)
basis, the most comprehensive and realistic approach to establishing
the environmental impact of racing.
The GREET model developed
by Argonne calculates all the energy consumed and the GHGs created from
the time the oil is pumped out of the ground, the corn is seeded in the
field or the wood waste is harvested, to its use as fuel in the car. [GREET
stands for Greenhouse gasses, Regulated Emissions and Energy use in
Transportation. It evaluates energy and emission impacts of advanced
vehicle technologies and new transportation fuels, the fuel cycle from
well to wheels and the vehicle cycle through material recovery and
vehicle disposal.]
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Audi revolutionized motorsport by building and winning races with its Audi R10 TDI powered by clean, sulfur-free diesel.
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The
difficulty of creating such a formula to rank environmental impact
arises from the realities of racing that have to be factored to make
valid energy comparisons. Faster cars and heavier cars use more energy
and produce more greenhouse gasses than comparable slower or lighter
cars. Cars that go farther during a race also require more energy.
To
develop the formula, Argonne and the American Le Mans Series created
"normalizing factors" for each variable so that they could accurately
and fairly compare the environmental performance of each car in the
race. The normalizing factors took into consideration such things as average speed, distance covered and car weight.
These calculations were compared using sophisticated computer modeling
with previous races to check their validity. In some cases, the cars
that win the race will also get the best environmental performance
score, but that will not always be the case.
"Motorsports has
always enjoyed the distinction of being at the forefront of advanced
automotive engineering," said Andy Karsner, U.S. Department of Energy's
Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, "and it
has been a primary catalyst for moving new technologies to the showroom
floor. The leadership role the American Le Mans Series has taken by
embracing open and diverse alternative fuel technology platforms has
not only set the bar for automotive racing, but it has helped redefine
the future of the transportation sector."
The American Le Mans
Series, where automobile manufacturers race to develop technologies for
future consumer cars, is the only racing series in the world where all
its cars race on not one, not two, but three alternative "street legal"
fuels: clean sulfur-free diesel, E10 and cellulosic E85 ... with rumors
of a next-generation hybrid soon to come. "Street legal" refers to
fuels that are virtually the same as the consumer buys at the fuel
station. The Series has 11 auto manufacturers/marques involved, more
than any other major racing series in the world.
"We have always
claimed to be the most relevant racing series on the planet," said
Atherton. "Now, we hope to play a role in saving that planet by working
with manufacturers on innovative alternative fuel solutions and new
technologies. We believe this could be truly paradigm shifting by
effectively putting the auto back into auto racing and taking the sport
from a form that for some has been primarily entertainment-focused to
one that is also relevant and issue-focused. We are working with the
car companies on new technology that matters." For more information on ALMS, visit www.americanlemans.com.
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