DETROIT — The American Le Mans Series will continue to explore the use of alternative fuels in 2008, expanding its march towards a clean energy future by adding a much higher E35 ethanol-gasoline blend to the current E15 and diesel fuels used in 2007.
The expansion was a part of a package announced by series head Scott Atherton here at Detroit’s North American Int’l Auto Show which included the revelation that the ALMS will partner with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Society of Engineers to find new paths to reducing the current dependence on oil.
The move by Atherton and the ALMS along with its sanctioning body, the International Motor Sports Ass’n, continues efforts to make itself not just a traditional motorsports venue, but something of an on-track research center in the alternative energy search.
The efforts by Atherton and IMSA’s Tim Mayer have yet to be taken by officials of the Le Mans 24 Hours, from whom the ALMS leases its technical regulations, and which was started in 1923 as an automotive proving ground.
The practical results of the current efforts by Le Mans and the ALMS have resulted in the Audi R10 diesel, introduced in 2006, that has not only won the ALMS’s LMP-1 class, but also Le Mans itself the past two seasons. The latest version of the turbocharged diesel will make its public debut next week at the ALMS’s annual Sebring winter test session where it will be joined by its similarly diesel- powered rival from Peugeot, which claimed the European Le Mans Series crown in 2007.
Whether the Peugeot will contest the Sebring 12 Hour ALMS opener in March remains uncertain. However, the LMP2 contest between Porsche’s RSY Spyders and the factory-blessed Acuras, which saw the two marques contest the overall honors on more than one occasion, is expected to resume with more intensity this year.