Details for the 2017 Green Grand Prix were posted yesterday, at
www.GreenGrandPrix.com
[EDIT - MARCH 13] I just got an email from GGP organizer Bob Gillespie. He'd like to have more EcoModder drivers in this year's event. So would I!
If you're considering going this year, please contact me and the Green Grand Prix. [EDIT]
When you register, be sure to state "Team Ecomodder" under "School or Business Name". Our combined efforts help gain recognition for Ecomodder. Ecomodders have been driving in this event since at least 2010 if not earlier.
This year's event is Friday, April 7. For this year, the afternoon time-speed-distance rally on state/local roads has been replaced by an Autocross event in the Watkins Glen North Paddock area.
Bob's email below, and my comments, concentrate on the Autocross event because it is new to the GGP.
HOWEVER, remember that the two hour, roughly 100 mile fuel economy/TSD rally event on the Watkins Glen track will probably get most of your attention. I doubt that the Autocross event will score for fuel economy, in part because it is a very short run, something like one minute in duration - possibly run several times per car.
I received this email from Bob Gillespie, the event organizer, yesterday evening:
You’ll see that we have our usual fuel economy event on the track from 10 AM - 12 noon.
Then we decided that we need to change things up and do an autocross in the afternoon. [Okay Ecomodders, this means many of us need to start reading up on what Autocross is.]
In an effort to start focusing on electric cars and hybrids, plug-ins, we decided we would promote these cars in the Autocross.
The good news is that we value our Ecomodder friends and so long-time Ecomodder entrants and new Ecomodders of special merit can enter the Autocross too.
This Autocross can just be for fun, you run around a short course of pylons individually. We will have an award for ecomodders. What we don’t want is a bunch of college kids with high-horsepower tire spinners crashing around...
If people either don’t want to enter, or are disallowed because of the nature of their car, they can attend afternoon talks.
We will have a talk on
Formula e, among other topics. We are trying to get someone from one of the Teams to speak, like Andretti, Jaguar, or Audi. Maybe someone from the race organizers in Brooklyn. [EDIT] I think this series can serve to push electric vehicle technology that will carry over to passenger cars. Since they race on city streets all over the World, it will also help create a market for EVs. [/EDIT]
Ecomodders, about the new Autocross event
I found this article on Autocross. I'm sure many of you know more than what's in this article but... this is what I have for now.
SCCA article: Road Racing vs Autocrossing
You need to read or scroll down to the section headed "Autocrossing".
The
GGP web site Rules page lists eight classes for the Autocross event, and Ecomodders is one of the classes.
You'll see that aside from the "Ecomodder" class, every class in Autocross is some type of Hybrid or EV. That is, aside from Ecomoders, no "conventional" gas/diesel vehicles will run in the Autocross. Thank you, Bob Gillespie!
I don't know how Autocross is scored; my guess is that the shortest time through the course wins. The article I linked above indicates that you usually get a few tries running the course, and a run may be only a minute or so in duration. One car runs at a time. My guess is that the number of cars present and the time needed for each run, will determine how many attempts we each get, at driving the course.
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