(Part of a series): IndyCar® Series drivers Tony Kanaan and Vitor Meira knew plenty about fuel grade ethanol prior to using it to power their 220 mph racing machines.
As youngsters racing in Brazil, Kanaan and Meira filled the fuel tanks for their go-kart racing vehicles with ethanol. Produced from sugar cane in Brazil, ethanol is the fuel of choice in passenger cars as well as racing open-wheelers.
“We would run ethanol in our karts wherever we went racing, ” said Kanaan, the 2004 IndyCar Series champion.
“It was a great fuel for the motors, and it helped our engines create a lot of power. I think you see that in our Indy cars now, but Brazil uses ethanol in all of its cars. Actually, they have different grades of ethanol. ” Meira said, “As a kid, I knew a lot about ethanol from my go-kart. Then the country had a gas crisis and Brazil needed to produce more fuel and they went to ethanol. We run 40, 50 and 80 percent ethanol in all of the passenger cars in Brazil. The country uses mostly sugar cane to produce its ethanol, while the U. S. uses mostly corn for its ethanol fuel. I have know about ethanol for over 20 years and it is great that our Indy cars are using it now. ”
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