Green Racing at Petit Le Mans: Drayson Racing

by Joanne Ivancic (Advanced Biofuels USA) Drayson Racing (without Barwell this year) had a new, much faster car (built less than a month earlier in only 12 days) at the 2009 10 hour or 1000 miles Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.

It's a Le Mans prototype with a Lola body and Judd engine. The team was a bit nervous and visibly excited after Rob Bell drove the 3^rd fastest lap during Saturday morning's practice in the rain. Still, they were trying to contain their expectations. The #88 car was barely out of the box, let alone broken in. It probably hadn't lost that "new car" smell yet. And none of the three drivers (Paul Drayson, Rob Bell and Jonny Cocker) had driven it much on the Petit Le Mans track as the weather during the previous week (and for weeks before that) was rainy and miserable.

Personal circumstances changed, as well. Paul was still a member of the United Kingdom Parliament's House of Lords and was now the Minister for Science and Innovation in the UK Government. Instead of the usual sponsor's logos, stickers on the race car represent partners in the construction and operation of the car, and logos representing science and education programs that are of Lord Paul's ministry. For example, the "So Science So Everything" logo represents a project to encourage students to focus on science and math as essential to doing well in everything. The "Bloodhound SSC 1000 mph" is an engineering adventure to see what develops for society as a whole from the search for transportation at 1000 mph.

In 2008, Drayson finished second in the inaugural Green Challenge at the Petit Le Mans highlighting the team's efforts to advance environmentally responsible automotive technologies. The team had missed most of the ALMS races in 2009, and with the new car, would not be competitive in the overall competition this year.

Before the race I had a chance to talk to Elspeth Lady Drayson, co-owner and administrative manager of the team. She was thrilled about the anticipated racing that day and nearly giddy about their just-announced plans to compete in P1 for the entire US ALMS race season in 2010. You can see the Drayson's pleasure as they walked the flag of the UK to the cars displayed in pit lane.

Tom Moore, marketing and communications for Drayson Racing explained the Drayson philosophy, "It's set by Paul Drayson, the founder of the team. Three things. We want to be competitive, to develop advanced "green," efficient technologies for autos, and to have a good time."

One of the reasons for the team's exhilaration is the opportunity for technological development in the P1 class that they didn't have racing GT2. "The sky's the limit," said Tom, "because ALMS does a great job of allowing all sorts of engines, fuels. There are no restrictions to what you can talk about with them. So it is an opportunity to develop green technologies with a real life test bed; taking motorsports back to what it was, to what it should be."

Elspeth's enthusiasm before the race was mirrored in Paul's voice when, during the long rain delay, he was interviewed by race radio. No matter the weather or the extensive damage to the brand new car after the poor #88 limped home on three wheels after spinning out into the barrier, his voice describing driving the #88 was as excited as a child on Christmas morning. And it continued with the same animation as he described his plans for developing efficiencies and technologies for the new race car-and for racing the entire ALMS/Green Challenge season in 2010.