PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
MITCH
FRIEDMAN
IN
THE
WIND
P32
WILLOW BRAWL
J
ared Mees (9) and Sammy Halbert (7) brawled all day long at Willow Springs Raceway on Sunday
with Mees winning the main event while Halbert came away with the win in the Dash For Cash.
EPA UPDATE
T
he U.S. Environmental Pro-
tection Agency has publicly
acknowledged that ethanol in
gasoline can damage internal
combustion engines by increas-
ing exhaust temperatures and
indirectly causing component
failures, according to the AMA.
The EPA statements are found
in a rule proposal issued by the
Federal Trade Commission re-
garding a new label for pumps
that supply fuel blends high in
ethanol.
According to the EPA, "[e]
thanol impacts motor vehicles
in two primary ways. First ...
ethanol enleans the [air/fuel] ra-
tio (increases the proportion of
oxygen relative to hydrocarbons)
which can lead to increased
exhaust gas temperatures and
potentially increase incremental
deterioration of emission control
hardware and performance over
time, possibly causing catalyst
failure. Second, ethanol can
cause materials compatibility is-
sues, which may lead to other
component failures.
"In motorcycles and nonroad
products [using E15 and higher
ethanol blends], EPA raised en-
gine-failure concerns from over-
heating."
These EPA statements, con-
tained in the FTC document,
back the long-held position of
the AMA.
