David Brabham's Quest for 'Green' Racing Returns to Sebring

David Brabham is one of the most accomplished racers of his generation, with a Formula One ride in the early 1990s followed by victories at LeMans and Sebring and an American Le Mans Series championship last year. Well traveled and worldly wise, Brabham was born in England, raised in Australia and has competed everywhere in between.

Brabham, 44, is a big picture kind-of-guy who is as passionate in raising money to fight malaria as he is dedicated to his successful racing career. He could be driving a Ferrari around town, but chooses the more efficient Volkswagen Golf.

On his driver's suit, where most drivers wear a flag representing their home country, Brabham instead has a patch of the planet Earth.

"We are human beings, we don't belong to a country, we all live on the planet Earth. ... it just works for me to think that way,'' he explained.

So it will surprise few who know him, that one summer day six years ago -- back before it was Hollywood hip or politically correct or even considered racing reasonable -- Brabham sat down and composed a letter to American Le Mans Series founder Don Panoz and series president Scott Atherton asking them to help make the sport of auto racing more "green."

Brabham implored the two powerful men to be aware of the growing problems of global warming and carbon emissions and consider how racing has contributed to the problem. More importantly, he wanted racing to start contributing to a solution.

".... Because the illusions we have created for ourselves have made our emotions too strong in the path we are going, I would like to see motor racing take the plunge and change its thinking about the way it goes about racing,'' Brabham wrote.

So as Brabham suits up for the ALMS sports car opener Saturday, the historic Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring -- at the same track where his legendary father, Sir Jack Brabham clinched the 1959 Formula One title -- he can take great pride in knowing that his concerns are being addressed. He's helped motivate the American Le Mans Series to be a leader in environmentally conscious racing.

"The letter came from the heart and anything that comes from the heart has a lot of power with it,'' said Brabham, who will steer the No. 1 Honda factory ARX 01c prototype for the Patron Highcroft Racing team.

"There are a lot of good people trying to push the cause and a lot of smart people in the industry that are willing to change the way we do things.''

So while many of the 80,000 or so fans descending upon this old airfield in rural central Florida may not be paying attention to their greenhouse gases, the racing series they'll watch couldn't be more mindful of its own.

The ALMS is proving that racing can still be about fast cars, thrilling competition and also be kinder to the environment.

While NASCAR is only a season out from switching to unleaded gasoline, the ALMS was the first to introduce clean diesel, then E10 and ultimately E85 grade ethanol fuel to its grid. Last year it had an electric hybrid-powered car.

It has adopted a number of other environmentally conscious programs including Michelin's Green X Challenge, an incentive race within a race, whose motto is: "if fast is good, then faster and cleaner is even better."

The Green X Challenge measures the cars' fuel efficiency and environmental impact during a race to award teams on a race-by-race basis. It also declares a season champ, whose trophy is made, in part, of recycled tires.

This weekend, one of the ALMS teams, Gunnar Racing, is not only running on ethanol fuel, it will be the first car to use G-Oil, a completely biodegradable motor oil approved by the American Petroleum Institute.

For these initiatives and others, the ALMS is currently the only "Green Racing" series designated by the US Department of Energy and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

And as far as Brabham is concerned, the result is a broader legacy every bit as important as racing's record books.

"It's making the series slightly different and it needs something to stand out, to have people interested and talking about it,'' Brabham observed.

"At the end of the day it's all about sustainability and having to change rules to have sustainability. It might be painful at times, but the foundations are being put down.

"It's great to see the momentum going and with the series we're fortunate to have a platform for green technology.

"It's expensive, but in the long run, the next generation will be thanking this generation.''