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Speaking of relevant technology, Thursday's presentation by the SAE's "Green Racing Panel" offered thoughtful, indeed provocative, insights into "the relationship between motorsports, production vehicles and environmental requirements and/or responsibilities." The panel included John Glenn (no not that John Glenn) from the EPA, Robert Larsen from the Argonne National Laboratory, consultant Timothy Frost, IMSA's Doug Robinson and Steve Bunkhall of England's Motorsport Industry Association, all of whom, in one way or another, discussed the challenges – and the opportunities – facing motorsports in its efforts to promote technological innovation and greater environmental awareness with the public without sacrificing performance or practicality.

Lest you get the wrong impression, the Green Panel members are not "tree huggers" but motorsports buffs and, in the case of Robinson and Bunkhall, active participants. Still as the variety of alternative energy and environmentally conscious initiatives across the motorsports spectrum – from F1's nascent energy recovery/conservation rules to the Audi R10 diesel and the Indy Racing League's all-ethanol 2007 IndyCar Series – attest, the sport is getting "greener" by the minute. And it had better be for, as Larsen put it, "racing is at a tipping point (where) it needs to find ways to recapture the interest and imagination of a larger society" in addition to the hard-core racing fans if it is to continue to grow.

Yet it is not as simple as formulating rules that wean motorsports away from petroleum-based to renewable fuels, reduce greenhouse emissions and accelerate energy regeneration technology. For example, as Robinson and others noted, there are safety issues involved, particularly when races involve cars powered by a variety of fuels – say gasoline, diesel and ethanol. In the event of a fire, safety crews that, once upon a time needed only to treat every conflagration as a gasoline or as a methanol fire, will need to quickly determine the fuels involved and react accordingly. What's more, they'll need to have proper training and the equipment at hand to do so. Or as Frost pointed out, it's all well and good to talk about the sport's high-profile series going green. But what of the 700+ short tracks around the USA (let alone local tracks and series from Australia to Zimbabwe) where the challenges of switching to environmentally responsible technologies are unlikely to be borne by the likes of the manufacturers, sponsors and fuel suppliers?

Like Rahal, none of the SAE's Green Racing Panel had all or even most of the answers. But they asked a lot of the right questions, which is the only way to generate good solutions. And if you want to hear the right questions (and maybe a few solutions) in 2008, you might want to consider putting the SAE Motorsports Engineering Conference and Exhibition on your agenda.

David Phillips is a Senior Writer for RACER magazine. To learn more about RACER, click here for subscription information.