Team Nasamax – The Race
A Mystery To Solve
Team Nasamax has faith in the potential of bio-ethanol as a racing fuel, and that faith is still strong. But the same can’t be said for starters. Or perhaps, motors? That is the mystery at the moment. Why did the team experience difficulty refiring the engine once subjected to race conditions?

A refueling practice went smoothly in the muggy, overcast warm-up at 07.30......

And the drivers looked fantastic prior to the sunny start....

And Bryan Herta got off to a quick start at the 51st Sebring 12 hours and the prospects for hour and hours of valuable track time seemed ahead. But you can’t run forever without stopping for fuel. Gasoline or bio-ethanol, it doesn’t matter. So he brought the beautiful green and silver racer in on lap 16 for a fill up, a process that should take about a minute or so to complete.

But no one expected the stop to last this long.

After several attempts to refire the Cosworth-Reynard, the team was forced to bring the car behind the pit wall and to their paddock for inspection. Cosworth engineers are with the team and they are - so far - stymied by the cause.

John McNeil: “In our earlier testing we never experienced this problem. But this is the first time we are running this wonderfully innovative entry under race conditions and we now have a mystery to solve.”

Mike Stewart is the Track Support Manager from Cosworth who is leading the effort to unravel the mystery of the mischievous malady. Watching him work he would engage the starter, and after several attempts the big Cosworth engine would come roaring to life. Success? Not yet. For each time he would run the engine for about 15 seconds, then shut her down, only to have her fail to refire yet again.

McNeil: “When we had the car in the pit we tried three batteries but we just couldn’t get the car to fire up. I am reluctant to go back out until we find the cause. We are checking it now but we really don’t now why we are having this problem.

“We are here to learn. We will continue to search for the reason and then go back out. It has to reliably refire or there is no point. When we can identify it, then we can go back out.

“We did 90 laps a day in our early testing without any starting problems. But the Cosworth engine has had a lot of amendments to it to accommodate the bio-ethanol fuel and the delivery of the fuel seems to be working just as it should be. When you make as many changes as we have to this Cosworth engine to run it on ‘green’ fuel, you wipe the slate clean as far as data is concerned. So the reason it won’t refire is just such a mystery.

“We are running a champ car engine and they use an external starter. We have had a whole starter assembly added and I suppose this is all part of our learning curve. We just have to see if we can solve the problem so as to have faith in the car refiring reliably each time we come in for fuel.”

A difficult beginning for a team that has such potential. And the work to unravel the mystery continues…

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They came loaded with green fuel to burn. They came anticipating an opportunity to find the time that they need to tweak their machine to burn that green fuel efficiently and at speed. And they came to find that time waits for no one, not even a “green machine that burns clean”.

After pulling the car into the paddock after the first hour, the crew worked diligently for hours and hours trying to resolve the problem that kept them off the track. But the answers were not located in this central Florida area of planet earth. The team finally made the decision to unplug the effort for the weekend and begin packing for the ride home.

The possibilities for using bio-ethanol fuels in exotic, world-class sportscars are both exciting and engaging.

Exciting in that the engineering acumen required to extract as much energy as possible from an environmentally friendly fuel will test the mettle of the Cosworth engineers. And engaging in that the fuel is truly renewable – no dinosaurs required – through the growth of crops. Bio-ethanol all but eliminates a primary cause for concern for those who care about the condition of the world in which we all abide. We refer, of course to a reduction in dependency on ‘dirty’ fuels.

Over time, the example being set by Team Nasamax will encourage the extended use of ‘green’ additives in consumer gasoline. An effort is already underway, but one that will only benefit from the positive presentation made by this team, on a world class platform, the American Le Mans Series. - and of course, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Cosworth Managing Director, Engineering, Nick Hayes, had this to say about his organizations involvement, “This is the first time for years Cosworth Racing has been involved on a factory support basis in sportscars. To be represented in the top class at one of the greatest races in the world – Le Mans – is extremely exciting for us. It also marks the first time we have used renewable fuel, bio-ethanol, in a racing engine and it is very exciting to be spearheading this technology.”

In the opinion of dailysportscar, the ACO is to be applauded as well for having the clarity of vision to permit this team to introduce this new renewable fuel to the world, at events it supports and promotes. The team will need time to resolve those niggling issues that come with any new effort and the ACO has elected to give them time to progress, thus allowing them an honest opportunity to succeed.

There are issues outside of the firing problems experienced today. But this team has already found ways this weekend to resolve several of them; they simply can’t enact them all while stationed just north of the Florida Everglades. But the hot sun and humidity that initially challenged them to recoup horsepower lost will not be of consequence once the team returns to Europe.

Testing at Jerez, and/or other points in Europe, is in the cards for the team, as is the implementation of the knowledge gained by coming to Sebring and having to face the oppressive heat. Cosworth, ASTEK, John McNeil, Brian Ireland and the rest of the Team Nasamax group see a “clearer” future ahead for their Reynard.

John McNeil: “We all really hope that this is the start of a new and vibrant area of motorsport, which will secure it’s future. And who can say that we’re wrong to try this?”

No one, John, no one.

www.nasamax.com