GREEN RACING UPDATE
The 2008 ALMS Petit Le Mans Green
Challenge™ Race
On October 4, 2008, the American Le Mans Series (ALMS)
conducted the historical first Green Challenge™ race as part of
its Petit Le Mans sports car race at Road Atlanta Race Track in
Braselton, Georgia with over 110,000 fans attending. Thirty-seven
cars competed in the Green Challenge™ at the race. The ALMS
Green Challenge™ was conducted in coordination with EPA, the
Department of Energy, and SAE International.
The Green Challenge™ was a race within the ALMS Petit Le Mans racing event.
The Petit Le Mans race is a 1,000'inile high-speed endurance race run on a 2.5 mile
road track with varying curves and hills. Racing officials tracked the fuel use of each
race car and applied life cycle energy and environmental analyses to the data to
determine the Green Challenge™ winners for the Prototype and GT classes. (See
the Green Racing Initiative Fact Sheet.) Trophies were awarded to the manufactur-
ers of the vehicles and to the racing teams of the winning vehicles,
ALMS qualified to issue green racing challenge awards under the SAE International
Recommended Green Racing Protocols (SAE J2880, October, 2008) by including
multiple powertrain technologies (spark ignition gasoline, including some with direct
injection, and diesel), renewable fuels (E10 in gasoline and celluosic E85), and a
vehicle with an electric hybrid energy recovery system. The car with the electric hy-
brid system, the Corsa Motorsports Zytek, was unfortunately not able to run the race
with the system because of technical difficulties. Nevertheless, it was a race entry.
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Transportation and Air Quality
EPA-420-F-08-038
December 2008
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Green Challenge™ Awards and Scoring
The principles followed in determining the Green Challenge™ awards included:
• The award recognized the fastest car with the smallest environmental footprint.
• It provided incentives for improved efficiency, use of renewable fuels, and reduced
greenhouse gas emissions.
• It did not pre-ordain the winner. Any technology and fuel could win if they are
fast enough, efficient enough, and green enough.
• Life-cycle analyses were used to assess both the on-track impacts and the upstream
environmental and energy impacts of the fuel.
The life-cycle analysis uses three factors to calculate a score for each car, with lower scores being
better. The factors are energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, and petroleum displacement.
Using the amount of fuel used during the race, these factors are calculated for both the upstream
(well-to-tank) component and the downstream (tank-to-wheels) component, and then added
them together for the score. Adjustments are made to account for vehicle mass and average
speed in order to prevent cars from running slow just to get a better score. The car with the
lowest score is the winner.
The Winners
The winning Prototype car in the Green Challenge™
with a score of 30.69 was the Number 6 Penske
Porsche equipped with an E10 powered gasoline
direct injection (GDI) engine. The direct injec-
tion technology allowed the Porsche to be very fuel
efficient during the race. Another gasoline direct
injection Porsche came in second, only 0.532 points
behind. A clean diesel Audi TDI came in third,
although it was only 0.629 points or about 2% be-
hind the winning car. The Audi TDI was in a close
race all day with a Peugeot diesel competitor which
caused the car to be less fuel efficient. The record
11 caution periods also was an advantage to the Porsche GDI vehicles because of their ability to
save more fuel during caution laps. This result demonstrates that fuel choice is only part of the
strategy for victory. It is also very important how efficiently the fuel is used, while allowing the
car to remain competitive. The GDI technology provided the advantage.
The winning GT car was GM Corvette Racing's Number 3 C6R Corvette which was
fueled with celluosic (non-food source) E85 ethanol, with a score of 20.391. Coming in second
was the E85 fueled Drayson-Barwell Aston Martin Vantage with a score of 20.479, and com-
ing in third was another E85 Corvette at 20.652. The winning Number 3 Corvette was also
the winner of the GT1 racing class, and outpaced the Aston Martin by an average of 3.3 mph.
However, the Aston Martin retired from the race near the end with mechanical problems. Tom
Wallace, General Motors Global Vehicle Chief Engineer for Performance Vehicles, called the
Green Challenge™ win "Corvette Racing's greatest victory."
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In the winners circle presenting the Green Challenge™ trophies were Margo T. Oge, EPA
Director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality, Pat Davis, the Department of Energy's
leading official for vehicle technologies and renewable energy and efficiencies, and Dave Schutt,
SAE International's Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President. Trophies were
presented to manufacturer representatives from Porsche and GM. Trophies were also presented
to the winning race teams.
At a press conference following the race Margo Oge commented, "Racing has always been
associated with high power and fast driving as well as innovation in safety and performance, but
(up until now) we have never been able to put racing and green(ing) together. The truth is we
are facing two very severe issues in this country. We have to be self-sufficient when it comes to
energy. Burning fossil fuels creates greenhouse gas emissions and has severe consequences. Our
hope is by starting here and introducing environmentally friendly technologies, we will continue
and transfer such developments to what you and I drive on a daily basis. I applaud the American
Le Mans Series and all involved in this effort."
ALMS will conduct the Green Challenge™ competition again in 2009 as a championship series.
Teams will start with a points allocation at the beginning of the year and have points deducted
every race according the Green Challenge™ finish position for that race. The winner in each
class will be the team with the least amount of points at the end of the season.
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