Comments on: Apex-Brasil Comes To Iowa

By: Doug W

Doug W — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:25:20 +0000

Agreed, EPIC (I guess) is falling apart…they are trying to convince us that Ethanol has nothing to do with the cost of food, but farmers are planting corn for Ethanol rather than people, causing the supply to drop.

Corn based Ethanol is not a great fuel either.

Now the Feds want to mandate 15% Ethanol in our gasoline, most of our cars cannot handle that level of Ethanol. Feds don’t care, because the lobbyists do.

Would I rather have an American group sponsoring ICS, YES! But not if they are just money grubbing businessmen…

By: Allen Wedge

Allen Wedge — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:18:08 +0000

As pressdog said above. It has been publicly confirmed through press and interviews that EPIC (american corn-ethanol) pulled their sponsorship of the Rahal Letterman car and Series and expected the series to suddenly pay them for all the fuel and still give EPIC all the same mentions as previous.

APEX Brasil jumped in with essentially the exact same deal EPIC originally had with the league for the previous 2 years (free fuel in lieu of sponsorship) so the league decided it better to continue not having to pay for fuel.

And now it looks like since then, its developing into a possible international race or 2, and from talk I’ve heard around the industry, a bunch of possible associate level sponsor coming to teams in 2010; but before all that it was simply an issue of EPIC pulling out on sponsorship and IndyCar finding a new one; and then EPIC going public with a different story that has since been refuted many times.

By: Leigh O'Gorman

Leigh O'Gorman — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:13:06 +0000

Regarding your point regarding last years good race, it’s not inconceivable (so far more than likely) that this race could also see a downturn in passing.
If on the off chance, Iowa lost the race, I would like to see it replaced with another oval – however if that were not possible, I’d love to see Road America step in; but then again I always say that!!).

By: pressdog

pressdog — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:26:25 +0000

I think you’re reading waaaaaay too much into the switch from corn- to sugar-based ethanol. The American ethanol trade group that had the deal with the league to sponsor a car and supply the fuel decided it wasn’t generating the required ROI, so they decided not to renew. Apex Brasil was willing to step in. I think that was the entire breadth of the decision process and it had zero to do with the effects of associating with corn-based ethanol on the IndyCar brand. The Brazilians offered free fuel AND tons of money. The Americans offered neither. Tough call. I think you’ll see 40,000 fans at Iowa, all of whom paid at least $55 for their seat. I suppose if the race loses its presenting sponsor (Iowa Corn Growers) it could go away, but I can’t imagine why IndyCar or Iowa Speedway would want to walk away from renewing a race that so many are willing to pay real money to attend.