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The Ethanol Dream ContinuesBy Anne Proffit
The spirit of Paul Dana is alive at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway today with an Ethanol Summit, a meeting that took place on the grounds to celebrate the Indy Racing League’s use of the biofuel.
Various people spoke during the Summit, including Rahal Letterman Racing co-owner Bobby Rahal and his three drivers: Buddy Rice, Danica Patrick and Jeff Simmons, who took over the #17 Ethanol machine after Dana’s untimely death during warmup for the season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
In addition, Tony George, CEO of the Speedway spoke of Dana’s dedication and enthusiasm for biofuels and, in particular ethanol, spearheading the League’s change from methanol. Greg Dana, Paul’s brother also told the tale of Dana’s dedication and enthusiasm for renewable fuels and his passion to bring ethanol to the Indianapolis 500.
Paul Dana began his quest to learn more about renewable fuels and their possible use in a racing environment shortly after September 11, 2001. When he first came to the Indy Pro Series, he did so with an Indiana farmer, entrant Ron Hemelgarn and the duo began to develop an ethanol-based engine for use in the Indy cars.
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That dream is alive today, as all 33 starters in this year’s Indy 500 will use 10 percent ethanol in their methanol-based machines; in 2007 all cars will run 100 percent ethanol. “Sunday will be a proud day for Paul, for Indiana and for the USA when ethanol fuel burns in all Indy cars,” Greg Dana pronounced. “This is the first time since 1964 that the Indy 500 has changed its type of fuel delivery.”
Engine maker Honda, of course was the first manufacturer to introduce hybrid engines to this country when they brought the tiny Insight coupe to market in 1999. Honda Performance Development is dedicated to renewable fuels and practices such recycling at its Southern California facility that builds many IndyCar Series engines. Honda have been at the forefront of SULEV and ULEV production.
Under Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Dorr was on hand for the Summit this morning and spoke of President Bush’s dedication to renewable fuels, despite his Texas oilfield background. In 1999 Bush said, according to Dorr, “I believe in Ethanol. It’s good for our economy; it’s good for our farmers and it’s good for our country.”
The state of Indiana was represented by its Lieutenant Governor, Becky Skillman, who named the initial recipients of the Paul Dana Leadership in Biofuels awards: Jon Lantz of Countrymark Co-op; Mike Ladisch from Purdue University and Kellie Walsh with the Central Indiana Clean Cities Alliance.
“Governor Daniels and I would like to honor those who have shown great leadership in the biofuels industry, just as Paul did as he promoted ethanol use,” said Lt Gov Skillman. “His dedication to ethanol and Indiana agriculture will be missed.”
While ethanol use in vehicles that once used gasoline-based additives shows an increase in energy, there is reason to believe the change from methanol to ethanol will result in some power loss. This is expected despite the fact that pure ethanol has an octane rating of 113 versus methanol’s 107 octane rating.
The change will necessitate amendments to the current Honda engine for 2007, but these specifications have not yet been decided upon by the Indy Racing League.
(c) 2006 Anne Proffit
PaddockTalk Perspective
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