Corvette Racing made motorsports history Saturday, scoring the first victory on 85 percent cellulosic ethanol racing fuel (E85R) in American Le Mans Series competition.

Drivers Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta won their second consecutive class victory on the waterfront street circuit in St. Petersburg, Florida.

“This was our first race running cellulosic E85 ethanol, and we had great performance and great fuel efficiency,” Gavin said. “We could have done the entire race on one pit stop. There were question marks about that from some people, but it’s been proven it’s a great fuel to run and it’s doing a bit for the green issue.”

The reigning champions won the GT1 division in the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg with a 4.754-second margin of victory in their No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R over Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen in the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R.

“I think we demonstrated not only to our fellow competitors but also to the world of racing that E85R is a viable and powerful fuel,” said Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan. “We’re very pleased with how it turned out.”

Photo Credit: Dan Boyd, American Le Mans Series