GREEN RACING UPDATE
The 2009 ALMS
Green Challenge
Championship
Awards
On October 11, 2009, EPA, DOE, and SAE International awarded
the first Green Challenge Championship trophies at the annual
American Le Mans Series (ALMS) awards ceremony in Monterey,
California. The Green Challenge Championship was the culmination
of a series of nine races over the 2009 ALMS racing season. The final
race was run on October 10, 2009 at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway near
Monterey. The Green Challenge is conducted as part of a partnership
between ALMS, EPA, the Department of Energy (DOE), and SAE
International. (See EPA Program Announcement, Green Racing
Initiative for more information.)
A Race Within a Race
For each of the races, the Green
Challenge competition was a "race
within a race" where the ALMS
sports car races went on as usual,
but Green Challenge measurements
and computations served as an un-
derlying competition for the fastest
and greenest competitors. This year's
&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Transportation and Air Quality
EPA-420-F-10-012
February 2010
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competitors included a hybrid electric race car, diesel powered cars using clean diesel fuel and
particulate filters, cars using E-85 ethanol fuel, and cars using E-10 gasoline.
The Winners
Two Green Challenge Championship trophies were awarded, one to each of the engine
manufacturers of the winning Prototype and GT class cars for the season. Honda won the
trophy in the Prototype class, and Porsche won the GT class trophy. The Green Challenge
Championship is not a privately sponsored award and is only bestowed by EPA, DOE, and
SAE International. It is awarded at the end of the season to the two winning engine
manufacturers based on points from each race during the season.*
The Green Challenge awards are based on measurement and calculation procedures that were
developed by DOE and EPA. The season-long championship awards use a point system that
starts with a starting allocation of 225 points, and points are deducted after each race depending on
the Green Challenge finish place of the car. Thus, the winners have the least number of points
at the end of the season,
Honda, the winning prototype class Green Challenge Championship manufacturer, finished
with 54 points, which was 106 points ahead of its nearest rival, AER. Porsche, the winning GT
class manufacturer, finished with 83 points, which was only 12 points ahead of Chevrolet,
The Green Challenge Championship winners' trophies were presented at the ALMS annual
awards ceremony by Margo Oge, EPA Director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality,
Pat Davis, DOE Program Manager for Vehicle Technologies, and Jim Smith, President of SAE
International. They also presented a special recognition award to Steve and Tere Pruitt who
developed and raced a pioneering hybrid electric racing machine that competed in several of the
ALMS races in 2009.
*ALMS and Michelin also sponsor separate awards for racing teams called the Michelin Green X
Challenge awards. Using the same measurement and calculation procedures as the EPA/DOE/SAE
awards, ALMS and Michelin award trophies to the winning Michelin Green X Challenge race teams
for each race and at the end of the season as a team championship. For more on the Michelin Green X
Challenge, see http://www.americanlemans.com/index_green.php
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