The de Ferran Motorsports Acura prototype combined speed and efficiency to became the first repeat winner of the MICHELIN® Green X® Challenge here at the Utah Grand Prix, the fourth event of the 2009 American Le Mans Series season., matching their success at the recent Long Beach Grand Prix.

The MICHELIN® Green X® Challenge is a race within the race at every 2009 ALMS event.

Led by former Indy 500 winner Gil de Ferran and co-driver Simon Pagenaud, the young Indianapolis based team celebrated its one year anniversary with a dominant performance on the 3.048-mile Miller Motorsports Park circuit and an unmatched energy efficiency in the first MICHELIN® Green X® Challenge event to be held at (4,300 feet) elevation.

“Acura and our team believe that the Michelin Green X Challenge is a very important award that will only continue to grow in prominence. We believe in the importance of efficiency and the environment and are very pleased to be the first repeat winners,” said de Ferran.  

The race debut of the Corsa Motorsports hybrid prototype added excitement to the competition as it became the fourth different energy source to compete through the first four races of the series, joining clean diesel, E85 cellulosic ethanol, and E10 ethanol, the four permitted energies in the series.

The Farnbacher Loles Porsche parlayed a second place GT race finish on the track into a winning strategy to become the fourth different team to claim the MICHELIN® Green X® Challenge GT award, narrowly topping Long Beach award winners Flying Lizard Porsche. 

“Both winning cars were able to adapt aerodynamics, engine performance and chassis efficiency to meet the challenges presented in the thinner air at this elevation,” said Silvia Mammone, Michelin motorsports manager. “The creativity and competitive natures of the teams are already starting to appear in the way teams approach the race and in their various strategies.”

Created jointly by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S, Department of Energy, SAE International, and the American Le Mans Series, the MICHELIN® Green X® Challenge uses a formula developed by the Argonne National Laboratories to rank all cars in the race according to speed, distance covered, the amount of energy used, greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted, and petroleum displaced. 

The bases for the unique MICHELIN® Green X® Challenge trophies presented to the respective Prototype and GT winners are made of rubber recycled from MICHELIN® Green X® consumer tires.