Ethyl's under the hood

Vermont Business Magazine, Jul 01, 2005

To the general populous, motorsports, especially stock car racing, appears to be dominated by the southern super speedways splashed across the country on network and cable television. As big business delves further into the sport and population demands create new complexes in major metropolitan areas from the country's heartland and westward ho, a little track in Central Vermont continues on with business as usual. Sort of.

Barre's Thunder Road is one of about 1,000 short tracks of almost any shape, size and configuration located in every state in the union, which serve as a quasi farm system for the big boys - the media stars. Celebrating its 46th season in 2005, the Green Mountain State's little crown jewel of short tracks is one of the leaders in the industry and frequently on the cutting edge.

As Vermont's white gold melted and mud season began in earnest, race teams, from the entry level PowerShift Warriors to the ACT Tour's top-level Late Models, were putting the final touches on their machines in anticipation of opening day. All the while, the price at the pump continued to escalate creating additional concerns for Thunder Road's race teams.

Enter track co-owner Tom Curley, a maverick to the brethren, but winner of the 2004 Promoter of the Year Award by their vote. The ever insightful and forward thinking promoter decided to make a statement, "It's the same old scenario of people talking about a solution but few actually ever do anything about trying to fix a problem. We decided to do something for a change," he said.

Along with partner and track coowner Ken Squier and Robert Ide, director of the Vermont Governor's Commission on Alternative Energy, Curley formulated a plan to test and introduce an option for ethanol use (also known as ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol) at the high-banked, quarter-mile oval. Thunder Road's "Alternative Energy" program consisting of a 9to-1 gasoline-to-ethanol mix. This innovative idea was announced at an April 26 press conference and initiated several days later in the Allen Lumber Street Stock class, a 40-plus strong division of 4-cylinder race cars.

At the season opening Merchants Bank event, defending Street Stock champion, Joe Small from Milton, VT piloted the Research & Development car powered by the alternative energy mix. With nary a hiccup under the hood, Small raced to a runner-up finish. "The car ran great," Small said of his Ford Tempo, "I haven't had to do anything different to the motor which makes converting to this fuel alternative so attractive. I wouldn't be surprised to find that some of the other (drivers) try it in the near future, especially since we ran so good."

Thunder Road's effort at testing an alternative energy source is believed to be the first by a stock car racing organization in the United States. The mid-western United States Auto Club (USAC) uses a similar fuel in three of its open-wheeled divisions. According to USAC President and CEO Rollie Helmling, alcohol-based products burn cooler and are less volatile than traditional high-octane stock car fuels like gasoline.

"We know that switching fuel in one division of race cars at Thunder Road in Barre, Vermont, won't make a huge difference," Curley admitted. "But we'd like to send a message that alternative methods of powering not just race cars, but any automobile, are feasible and practical. At least this gets the ball rolling in the right direction. Someone has to start somewhere and it might as well be us in little ol' Barre, VT."

It appears that Thunder Road's efforts are in the right direction. The U.S. Senate recently voted to double the amount of ethanol, to 8 billion gallons, that must be added to the nation's gasoline supply by 2012, a boon for farmers in the Corn Belt.

Ethanol, an agricultural product, is most often associated with corn although virtually any plant can be utilized including various grains, grasses and sugar cane. In the Southeast, Kudzu, a nuisance plant growing along roadsides, is also being processed into ethanol.

The use of such reformulated gasoline - which proponents say burns more efficiently - is required as a clean-air measure in areas with high levels of ozone or carbon monoxide. About 30% of gasoline consumed in the United States last year was an ethanol blend, according to the American Coalition for Ethanol, a trade association that supports increased ethanol use.

In addition to being a cleaner burning fuel, which will reduce pollution, ethanol is made from products readily available at home. "American farms produce a huge grain surplus," Curley explained, "Imagine the billions of dollars that could be saved if we could lessen our dependency on oil from the Middle East."

The use of ethanol is not a new idea throughout the world. About 40 percent of all the fuel that Brazilians pump into their vehicles is ethanol, known in Brazil as alcohol, compared with about 3 percent in the United States. No other nation is using ethanol on such a scale. The change wasn't easy or cheap. "But some three decades later, Brazil is reaping the return on its investment in energy security while the United States writes checks for $50-a-barrel foreign oil.