Jun 26, 2006

There's No Fuel Like an Old Fuel?

To most of us leaded gasoline is just a quaint memory, something filed in the same mental scrapbook that holds mood rings, troll dolls and STP stickers. But in NASCAR, leaded gasoline is the fuel of choice.  Right now.  Today.  And for the remainder of the current season and perhaps the next.  But NASCAR has announced its intention to get the lead out by 2008, and it might actually turn the trick by next season. 

"The target date is obviously to have it in use for Daytona in 2007," spokesman Jim Hunter told the Associated Press. "Assuming that everything goes well and there are no unforeseen problems, that is possible. But we'll have to run it in the Busch and Trucks Series and ARCA to evaluate it."

The ban on leaded gasoline dates back to the federal Clean Air Act of 1970, which required the phasing out of gasoline containing lead over the course of a few years.  The heavy metal was used in fuel to inhibit knock and as a valve lubricant.  It has been out of consumer-available fuels for decades, but NASCAR, also the last bastion of the carburetor, still uses it.  Now, though, the series has decided to test unleaded in its Busch series cars this July 29, the start of four consecutive races that will help the sanctioning body evaluate the effects.  NASCAR's truck racing series and its affiliated ARCA series will get into the unleaded act in August.

Following those tests, the series will revert to leaded gasoline while the racing teams, engine builders, NASCAR official and Sunoco (the official fuel supplier to the series) examine the results of the experiment.  Though it is exempt from federal clean air standards, NASCAR has been investigating a switch to unleaded for a number of years, but a key phrase the series lives by is, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

The quest for an unleaded solution was also hampered by the departure of Unocal as the official fuel supplier between the 2003 and 2004 seasons.  Now new supplier seems poised for the challenge.