02/12/07 Switching to Ethanol

Switching to Ethanol. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. The American Le Mans Series has decided to use ethanol-enriched fuel for the 2007 racing season. The organization has partnered with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council - or EPIC to make E-10 the official ethanol-enriched fuel of the series. Scott Atherton - President and CEO of the American Le Mans Series - considers this a perfect fit for the platform that is the American Le Mans Series. ATHERTON: The cars that are competing in the American Le Mans Series have direct links back to their manufacturers and in many cases directly back to the showroom. So when you look at the practical application of ethanol in this form, it really has a direct link to the consumer. The American Le Mans Series was founded in 1999 by Georgia-based entrepreneur Don Panoz. According to Atherton - it features top manufacturers such as Acura, Aston Martin, Audi, Corvette, Ferrari, Mazda, Panoz, Porsche and Saleen. ATHERTON: We've often described the American Le Mans Series providing a direct link for our manufacturers, the link from the racetrack to the showroom. I think today we've established another direct link and that is from the racetrack to the fuel station. Four different classes of competition are showcased in the American Le Mans Series - featuring open-top prototypes and sophisticated production-based GT cars. The competition is held at road racing venues across North America - as well as selected temporary street circuits in major urban markets. All cars in each class will be using gasoline enriched with 10-percent ethanol for the entire season. And EPIC Executive Director Tom Slunecka says that`s a win for the industry. SLUNECKA: American Le Mans is truly a world class organization and when a group like this embraces ethanol it really puts the exclamation point on the fact that ethanol performs. So from a technical aspect as well as promotional aspect, the ethanol industry is proud to partner with American Le Mans. The agreement follows the IndyCar® Series decision to use 100-percent fuel-grade ethanol for the 2007 season. The EPIC-IndyCar series partnership began in 2005 - and has advanced from ethanol being a team sponsor for Rahal Letterman Racing to working with the series to introduce an ethanol-methanol blend in 2006. In addition - EPIC will now sponsor the Rahal Letterman entry in the ALMS. That`s according to owner Bobby Rahal. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.