Leilani Munter Drives First All-Eco-Sponsored Car in Danica Patrick-Frenzied Daytona ARCA Effort

Green Racing

February 12, 2010

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by Joanne Ivancic (Advanced Biofuels USA) What is “green racing” really? Using biofuels in race cars is certainly part of it; urging the design and testing of efficient engines that take maximum advantage of biofuels’ special properties and can be used by regular consumers contributes mightily. Making race tracks more energy efficient, and recycling friendly is also important.

Danica Patrick's #7 GoDaddy.com car and Leilani Munter's #59 GREEN and SAVE car prepare for practice at Daytona International Speedway. More photos below.

Leilani Munter and her eco-sponsors take an additional tack by making use of the marketing potential of 185 mph billboards flashing to tens of thousands of Dayton International Speedway race fans. AND the attention and millions of TV viewers attracted to the race by famous IndyCar driver Danica Patrick’s stock car racing debut there.

Representing services and solutions intended to take America towards energy independence and a more sustainable future, a group of companies has come together to support the philosophy of their driver, to help the public understand how they can economically improve their impact on the environment, and to support the Daytona leg of Leilani’s campaign to race in the ARCA sports car series, a feeder into NASCAR racing.

Leilani and Charlie Szoradi of GREEN and SAVE have pulled together six green key sponsors. GREEN and SAVE and its LED Saving Solutions division which promote financing installation of LED lighting with the energy savings lead the group. Executives from those companies attended the February ARCA races. Vermont’s Native Energy has built more than 30 new Native American, family farm, and community based renewable energy projects and sent representatives to the race, as well.

Rounding out the group are groSolar, which representative Justin Hoysrodt boasted is the largest 100 percent U.S.-owned distributor, installer and integrator of solar energy solutions for residential and commercial installations; Home Efficiency Report, provider of in-depth analyses of household energy usage; and Eco Academy for career training and continuing education via online and live programs. Leilani’s brother-in-law, Bob Weir, lead guitarist for the Grateful Dead, came to attach a band sticker to the car, contributing his celebrity support.

Leilani unfortunately got caught in a multi-car pileup on the 7^th lap that took out 10 cars, taking two of the six women out of the race: Leilani and Venezuelan IndyCar driver, Milka Duno. This type of crash, dubbed “The Big One,” is not uncommon to the Daytona Beach track that designs rules to produce tight side-by-side pack racing.

Jill George also crashed out on lap 25, hitting the turn four wall so hard that racing had to be stopped until the safety barrier was fixed. She walked away from the crash due to stringent safety measures adopted by NASCAR not so long ago. Being a chiropractor, she’ll likely put her other professional skills to work on her recovery.

Danica Patrick thrilled the crowds and won over hard core race aficionados with her spectacular “save” and her aggressive come-from-behind 6^th place finish. Jennifer Jo Cobb raced cleanly from a 42^nd place start to a “most improved” 17^th place finish. Veteran Allie Owens spent most of the race in a sparkling 3^rd place only to get caught a few laps from the finish in a bad draft and, eventually, a sliding crash to finish 23^rd.

Bobby Gerhart, in the Lucas Oil car, scored his record sixth win at Daytona followed by John Wes Townley and James Buescher in 2nd and 3rd.

“The Big One” ended the hopes of flashing GREEN and SAVE ads for 2 hours in front of millions of fans (including the Danica-related record-breaking number of TV viewers). Leilani is fine… Car, not so much. She, her crew and sponsors were unspeakably disappointed, but otherwise well. As the racing veterans say, “That’s racing.” The strong pick up, learn from the experience and continue to the next race.

Will the eco-sponsors be strong and continue their ARCA campaign?

NASCAR fan, Hoysrodt of groSolar was excited to bring solar promotion to this “Great American Sport.” He sees bringing solar, which has been part of his family’s bread-and-butter since his father started working with Abundant Energy 25 years ago, as a “big thing” for both solar and stock car racing.

Architect Szoradi, founder and president of GREEN and SAVE, has been thinking about energy efficiency since he wrote his 1993 thesis on eco-humanism. He noted that the relationship with Leilani’s racing efforts developed over two years. From seeing an article about her in a popular magazine to swapping links on websites to expanding their corporate connections as Leilani helped GREEN and SAVE achieve their marketing goals. Synergies came together as Mark Gibson Racing had GREEN and SAVE install 10,000 square feet of LED lighting in the main shop.

The February ARCA race was Szoradi’s first experience of a NASCAR-like sports car event.

George Hoguet, Director of Product Marketing for NativeEnergy met Leilani through National Wildlife Fund connections. NativeEnergy is not normally involved with sports car racing, he said, although with Leilani the see a fit, a compatibility with what she is trying to accomplish. He notes that they are taking a chance with their customers, some of whom think their involvement with this effort is “nuts.” However, Hoguet sees the enormous audience for their mutual message and is looking forward to the opportunity to promote a new theme for each of Leilani’s races: energy, water conservation, recycling, etc.

NativeEnergy is in this to support a voice that is “real” and has respect, said Hoguet.

The eco-sponsors distributed a “tip sheet” of initiatives they hope Leilani's fans will adopt to save on energy costs, reduce carbon emissions and move America toward a more sustainable future.

"If each of the more than 2.2 million fans expected to watch the DAYTONA race would take just one of the eight steps we recommend, they could collectively save more than $250 million dollars each year, and help avoid more than four million tons of carbon emissions over the next 10 years,” said Szoradi. "That's like taking 67,000 cars off the road each year.”

Leilani hopes that GREEN and SAVE exercises their option to continue to sponsor her in the rest of the 10 televised ARCA races this season. And that the rest of the eco-partners will continue to bring an eco-sponsored car to the NASCAR sports car racing audience.

The marketing partnership/sponsorship agreement was for the Danica-frenzied Daytona Beach race only.

As of post time, no decision has been made to continue this innovative, pioneering effort to reach new audiences with a message of financially savvy ecological stewardship and energy independence. WATCH Video