From yesterday’s “green” stories involving soccer, probably one of the most environmentally friendly sports, we take a sharp right turn – past the nuclear power plant and with the coal burning facility in the background – and arrive at the hugely popular sport of race car driving, seemingly the least environmentally friendly sport. No worries, as this site is about “sports doing good” and change may be upon us in the world of auto racing.

A new trend – green racing – has emerged not only to make racing more energy efficient, but also to aggressively promote greener technologies in the consumer vehicle sector.

In fact, according to Jay Davidson a lawyer for the Baltimore Racing Development company (BDR), “the goal of green racing is to use racing competitions to help develop cleaner, more fuel efficient vehicle propulsion systems that will eventually be implemented in consumer vehicles.”

Various race venues and organizations have already made efforts to be more energy efficient.  The Indy Racing League (IRL) for example, has been racing with 100% ethanol fuel since 2007. And the American Le Mans Series has become a leader in this area by incorporating various green racing protocols developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with Argonne National Laboratories, the Department of Energy (DOE), SAE International and various industry partners.

You can read more about Green Racing here and the Le Mans Series efforts here.