Michelin Green X Challenge Starts Second ALMS Season

The Michelin Green X Challenge is described by the tyre maker as a ‘race within the race’ at motorsports events such as the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). The idea behind the challenge is summed by Michelin as “if fast is good, then faster and cleaner is even better,” and the company notes that this approach paid off for 12 of the 20 ALMS Michelin green X Challenge winners last year, as they also won their respective class on track. The 2010 US based round of this environmental motorsport awards programme gets underway at the Twelve Hours of Sebring on March 20.

“As teams and manufacturers became more familiar with the Michelin Green X Challenge, they did what racers always do, they adapted to improve,” said Silvia Mammone, Michelin Motorsports manager. “One thing that remained fairly consistent throughout the entire season was that the most efficient cars in the race were often atop the scores for the Michelin Green X Challenge.”
 
The connection between performance and environmental efficiency comes as no surprise to the green racing steering group who sought out racing series as a means to speed the development of new fuels and technologies. The ALMS is the only racing series currently recognised as ‘Green Racing’ by the group, which is comprised of the US Department of Energy, the US Environmental Protection Agency and SAE International.
 
Using a formula developed by the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory that includes over 30 different factors, ALMS P1/P2 and GT teams win by delivering the best overall performance, fuel efficiency, and smallest environmental impact throughout the race. All ALMS entries compete with E10 ethanol blended petrol; E85R petrol blended ethanol, GTL (natural gas to liquid) biodiesel, E10-electric hybrid power or Iso-butanol petrol.
 
The awards are named in honour of Michelin’s ‘Green X’ low weight and rolling resistance consumer tyres.  In addition to the ALMS, the awards, with regionalised formulas, are now presented at every Le Mans Series race in Europe and Asia plus the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans event. The Michelin Green X Challenge trophies presented to the respective winners are produced from rubber recycled from Michelin Green X tyres.