Peugeot and Porsche win Michelin Green X Challenge at Sebring

The longest race of the 2010 America Le Mans Series season, the 12 Hours of Sebring provided the perfect venue for Peugeot Sport to score a convincing double win, taking first and second place honors in both America’s iconic sports car endurance race and in the Michelin Green X Challenge Prototype category.

The victory for the Peugeot 908 HDI FAP turbo-diesel powered cars makes Peugeot Sport the sixth manufacturer and second diesel fueled car to claim victory in America’s premier environmental motorsports competition in eleven races. While the car of Marc Gene, Alexander Wurz and Anthony Davidson took on track honors, their teammates Pedro Lamy, Sebastien Bourdais, and Nic Minassian reversed the order in the Michelin Green X Challenge. This was the twelfth overall victory in a row for Michelin at Sebring.

“We are very pleased to demonstrate the efficiency of Peugeot HDI technology both in the race and in the Michelin Green X Challenge. The HDI technology used in our race cars is the same technology we use in our standard production cars,” said Peugeot’s Jean Claude Lefebvre. “Our Peugeot Sport engineers exchange information directly with our production engineers.”

PORSCHE WIN STREAK CONTINUES
Continuing  an impressive E85 fuelled run of success that carried them to the 2009 Michelin Green X Challenge GT Championship, the Flying Lizard Porsche of Seth Neiman, Darren Law and Richard Leitz opened the second season of competition by claiming the GT honors at Sebring, besting their teammates to lead a Porsche 1-2 finish.

ABOUT THE MICHELIN GREEN X CHALLENGE
Developed in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and SAE International to accelerate the development of alternative fuels and new technologies, the Michelin Green X Challenge is a race within the race at all 2010 American Le Mans Series events.   

All ALMS entries compete with E10 ethanol blended gasoline; E85R gasoline blended ethanol, GTL (natural gas to liquid) biodiesel, E10-electric hybrid power or Iso-butanol gasoline.

Teams win by delivering the best overall performance, fuel efficiency, and smallest environmental impact throughout the race.  Using a formula developed by the Argonne National Labs that includes over 30 different factors. The American Le Mans Series is the only series currently recognized as “Green Racing” by the U. S. Department of Energy; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and SAE International.

The Michelin Green X Challenge trophies are presented to the respective Prototype and GT winners. The bases for the unique Michelin Green X Challengee trophies are made of rubber recycled from Michelin Green X labeled consumer tires.