No More Leaded Race Fuel after January 2010!!

[Mike Semeniuk]

The Conservatives in this Federal election have brought this issue to a head. In their campaign material ( in this part of Alberta at least) they state on page 3 : The exemption on leaded fuel used for racing will end January 1, 2010. I called the local Conservative candidate to confirm what the article said and his assistant returned my call stating the Conservatives are very committed to ending the use of leaded racing fuel in Canada and the time from now until January 1, 2010 is sufficient for our sport to come up with alternative fuels. When questioned about the leaded fuels used by private and small commercial airplanes - she said that will be addressed sometime in the future. She also added that we should learn from NASCAR and take advantage of what NASCAR learned about unleaded fuel.

So you see, the 1.5% of the total leaded fuel imported into Canada that we use, is now an environmental pawn in this election. My suspicion is, if this same material hasn't appeared in the other provinces, these politicians are trying to gain favour with the electorate in Alberta, and Canadian’s in general, because of the negative focus on the oil sands and resultant environmental damage. In any case- removing the exemption is on their agenda with a confirmed end date.

The environment is extremely important and has to be protected, but - why start with a relatively small segment of the population that affects the livelihood directly and indirectly of so many. Canada needs all the tourist dollars it can get, and our races certainly have done their job over the years. Obviously for the Conservatives, the appearance of doing something is more important.

For this and other reasons, I know who won’t get my vote.

Mike Semeniuk
GTHA 632

[John Kelley]

There is no comparison between drag racing and NASCAR in the amount of fuel used !
43 cars running 500 miles probably consume 10,000 + gallons ! I think the would be about 5 times as much ad a three day drag race....just guessing

[bill dedman]

Word is, those 43 cars average about 4 miles per gallon. The race itself, at 500 miles (Daytona) would use a little over five-thousand gallons (actually, 5,315 gallons,) but that doesn't include qualifying. I have no idea how far these cars go in qualifying, and that might be an interesting addendum to the 5,000+ gallon figure.

Anyone want to venture a guess on the amount of fuel used in qualifying for this race?

[Rory McNeil]

I find it rediculous that our Canadian government is on a leaded fuel motorsport witchhunt, in the name of the enviroment, yet the vast majority of leaded fuel is consumed by boating and farming (which are involved in most of the food we put into our bodies), and aircraft, all of which supposedly have "lifetime" exemptions in Canada. Several years ago, a team from Enviroment Canada were monitoring the air around Mission Raceway in BC, and the lead content was reported to be "negligable". You would think that the Government would have more important issues to deal with (like crime, maybe?), than harass a small number of auto racers.

[John Kelley]

Originally Posted by Stew Pidasole

-plus/minus 800 entries at a Nat'l event
-a couple of divisional races
-IHRA divisional/Nat'l (great turnout this weekend 7-ss and 17 stk)

I think there is a lot more race gas used than you would think in a weekend of drag racing between both sanctioning bodies while comparing it to Nascar.

Stew
766 STK

I was talking about ONE NASCAR RACE.......you compare a bunch of different races. NO COMPARISON....

[Sean Ward]

During qualifing they use 8 gallons and during pratice they use on avarge 15 to 20 depending on laps ran my cousin works for a nascar team and they do burn a ton more fuel than we ever have

[cujo3116]

One question that comes to the forefront of my mind is where do the other political parties stand on this issue? Is it even an issue with them? We are less then 24 hours away from being able to make our voices heard this could be a good tme to send a message

[goinbroke2]

I e-mailed 100's of MP's a few months back the last time this flared up. Don't lay this at the door of the conservatives, they ALL gave the same response. Blaming Harper for this is about the same as blaming him for the economic crisis around the world right now.

I'm pissed about the fuel issue too, and my point was we (in Canada) will change to an unleaded race fuel in a heartbeat...AS SOON AS IT IS APPROVED BY NHRA! Any MP who e-mailed me back said if we change then nhra will have to change, I said NO! it doesn't work that way, the States runs leaded and they will not change for the "fringe" racers. We WANT to run unleaded and WANT to help the enviroment but we are not allowed to use a NON APPROVED fuel. Until NHRA changes, can we have an exemption.

Answer...no. period.

They don't understand/don't want to understand/racers are not a big enough interest group who will sway votes, so....NO. period.

It is not a conservative thing or a liberal thing or even a green party thing, politicians don't race and don't care.

I certainly hope this doesn't turn into a political thread, it appeared as if it would of been a harper bash a thon, but has remained about the issue, which is fuel. Let's keep it that way.

Steve Polhill can fill us in more on how things are progressing when he has something to pass along.

[John Kelley]

I thought most of the "tree huggers" were in Kalifornia !!!! :-)