ALMS

Series Green X Challenge spotlight - Wesoloski

WESOLOSKI ON BUILDING A GREENER CORVETTE As Corvette Racing prepares for its sixth season as a Michelin partner team in the American Le Mans Series, GM Road Racing Group Manager Steve Wesoloski is embracing the tire corporation's involvement in ...

Published: Jun 19, 2009, 7:37 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

WESOLOSKI ON BUILDING A GREENER CORVETTE

As Corvette Racing prepares for its sixth season as a Michelin partner team in the American Le Mans Series, GM Road Racing Group Manager Steve Wesoloski is embracing the tire corporation's involvement in the MICHELIN Green X Challenge for 2009.

"The big thing is adds another layer of credibility," Wesoloski said. "Michelin is not shy - and rightly so - in talking about its concern for the environment and what it does with recycling and its environmentally friendly programs."

Michelin and the Series announced their partnership for the MICHELIN Green X Challenge on Monday in conjunction with the Washington Auto Show. At each Series event in 2009, one prototype and one GT team that demonstrate the best overall performance and fuel efficiency with the least environmental impact will win the MICHELIN Green X Challenge award.

Wesoloski also takes pride in helping transform the image of Corvette from gas-guzzling to energy-efficient and environmentally conscious. That was one of the reasons GM blessed Corvette's decision to compete on cellulosic E85 starting last season; that initiative will continue in 2009 and with the new Corvette GT2 racer.

"It's going to be a long time before the auto industry finds the one magic solution," he admitted. "In the meantime we're all looking for answers. This (cellulosic E85) is one. We're saying you don't have to be afraid of ethanol. It's good enough to race and good enough to drive to soccer practice. And we're not touching the food chain. We're trying to send that message, and using a cellulosic process is a big deal."

And with the development of the GT2 Corvette (which Wesoloski says is on track to test for the first time in mid- to late-March), are there additional efficiencies that can be improved on from the C6.R GT1?

"Certainly there have been lessons learned," he said. "There is a cross over with the production powertrain group as they are taking a lot from the V8 engines we race to make them compatible with E85. Those are things we learned from racing. Another thing we are doing with the GT2 car is weight. We have embraced the aluminum frame from the Z06 and ZR1. You can put these materials in the race car and (embrace) new technologies."

The American Le Mans Series will open its 11th season with the 57th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida on Saturday, March 21. SPEED will televise the race live from 10 a.m. to noon and 2-11 p.m. ET. Log on to americanlemans.com for more information.

-credit: alms

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Corvette Racing 2009 lineup announced

Next article Peugeot confirms Sebring, adds Brabham, Bourdais

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Hamlin says Chevy teams 'suck at the teat' of Hendrick on superspeedways

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Talladega II

2 h

Hamlin says Chevy teams 'suck at the teat' of Hendrick on superspeedways

Valtteri Bottas denies he might lose his Cadillac seat for F1 2027

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

3 h

Valtteri Bottas denies he might lose his Cadillac seat for F1 2027

AJ Foyt Racing signs Josh Pierson to multi-year deal beginning with 2027 IndyCar season

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 3 h

AJ Foyt Racing signs Josh Pierson to multi-year deal beginning with 2027 IndyCar season

Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle named co-winners of Comcast Community Champion of the Year Award

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup 4 h

Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle named co-winners of Comcast Community Champion of the Year Award

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts