DAYTONA BEACH, Florida -- While working for General Motors in Brazil in the 1990s, Brent Dewar got a first-hand look at the country's successful switch from an oil-based economy to ethanol.
Dewar wants to see the same thing happen in the United States, and he thinks NASCAR can help. He's lobbying officials to consider a switch from gasoline to ethanol.
Kyle Petty: ‘need to do something’
"We would embrace it," said Dewar, GM's vice-president of field sales, service and parts. "We think it would be great on a lot of fronts, because obviously it would send a signal to the public. A lot of people don't understand the benefits of ethanol."
Other racing series already are embracing renewable fuels. Beginning this season, the Indy Racing League's IndyCar Series will race on 100 per cent ethanol. And the American LeMans Series will race on a 10 per cent ethanol blend.
Driver Kyle Petty says NASCAR's marketing power might drive alternative fuels into the mainstream, helping consumers get over the image of hippies tinkering with their 1980s Mercedes to make them run on vegetable oil.
"I think once you start seeing alternative fuels show up in places like racing and places where you least expect them, then you don't think about that guy with the Volkswagen van that runs off of whatever," Petty said.
NASCAR is taking one step in the direction of environmental responsibility by getting the lead out, catching up with a change most consumers made in the 1980s by switching from leaded to unleaded fuel.
NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said officials are willing to consider renewable fuels, too.
Still, even proponents don't portray ethanol as a magic wand. Despite its benefits -- it's renewable, can provide a slight performance advantage, isn't imported from politically volatile countries and burns cleaner -- ethanol isn't as efficient as gasoline.
Although American cars can run on 90 per cent fuel/10 per cent ethanol blends, cars have to be specially equipped to run on heavier blends of ethanol.
Technological innovations could drive down the price of ethanol, Dewar said. Today, most ethanol in the U.S. is made from corn. In Brazil, ethanol is made from sugar cane. Some research indicates certain kinds of grass and even wood chips might be better suited to making ethanol. Dewar said researchers also are working to develop enzymes that break down waste products into ethanol. In five years, he expects cars to literally run on recycled garbage.
With all that in mind, Petty said it's time for NASCAR to think about going green.
"I think the global-warming thing, and all the things that are written about that, a lot more people are aware of the fact that we do need to do something," Petty said.
-- Associated Press
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