Today the ICS and APEX-Brazil have signed a deal where they supply some of the ethanol for the league. In return they will promote various Brazilian products throughout the races.

Interesting. Any idea how will this affect the US Ethanol sponsorship? Or is it just running it's course and that's it.

BrownRhino, I e-mailed my guy those very same questions. Ethanol what is it to RLR, the league and its fuel source , and the Iowa Corn 250. Is it 3 different entities or one bigone.

As I stated in another post, Ethanol is gone from RLR and IndyCar. RLR is supposed to be in line for any sponsorship opportunities from the new fuel supplier. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out, because as of right now Rahal is out of the Indy Car business.

Let me know if you hear back.

Seems like Ethanol is going the way of the dot coms, just fueled by massive Govt. incentives instead of VC monies. McCain was pretty critical of them during the campaign, and I can't imagine Obama is a big fan of this huge Govt. welfare program. The fact the RHR hasn't been resigned by Rahal is a bad sign of the overall atmosphere with E85.

Well, good news and bad news but a net gain zero in todays climate I will take. It appears like Baboon said EPIC is cutting back altogether or significantly. Some Ethanol will still be provided by U.S. suppliers and the Iowa Corn 250 appears safe for 2009. It does look like RLR is out of a sponsor but according to what my guy dug up is that they will sponsor 1 car in the series and a multi-million dollar ad campaign throughout the race season. So, what team will be the recepiant. One would have to assume a Brazilian driver. Matos, Meira, Camara, or maybe someone else.On a personal note I would like to see Foyt move Meira over to the Ethanol sponsor and have a American for ABC Supply.

Brown Rhino - 17 November 2008 06:23 PM

The fact the RHR hasn't been resigned by Rahal is a bad sign of the overall atmosphere with E85.

My biggest concern here is for RHR. Hunter-Reay is my driver and I would like to see, up-close, his career unfold into what I think it can be. IMO, he has the earmarkings of becoming the series champion and an Indy winner.

my money is on Matos at LDR.

EarlofSpeed - 17 November 2008 06:01 PM

BrownRhino, I e-mailed my guy those very same questions. Ethanol what is it to RLR, the league and its fuel source , and the Iowa Corn 250. Is it 3 different entities or one bigone.

Those are 2+1 EPIC (Ethanol Promotion Information Council) is gone as of the end of the year and as mentioned elsewhere, have informed the Rahal people and the league of such (actually before Surfer's).

The Iowa race is sponsored by local growers.

Overall, the ethanol thing has mostly to do with industry consolidation (tons of money was spent on getting plants up and running, most of which were built by two of the major entities behind EPIC) and demand, like that for gas in general, has not met projections.

As for the whole gov't subsidy/food price spike /environmental inefficiency thing - Most of that comes from a major anti-ethanol campaign funded by petroleum and chemical companies who would rather see profitable additives like MTBE in gas rather than ethanol.

Overall my guess is that big oil will eventually try to swallow up one of the big ethanol players like Archer Daniels Midland.

But as of right now, RLR and RHR are both SOL.

The league will help out RLR and they will be fine next year. They aren't going to let them just disappear. The next sponsor that comes along the league will point their way.

Official- the link:

http://www.indycar.com/news/?story_id=12829