The Iowa Corn Indy 250 is underway here at Iowa Speedway and the weather is perfect.
Team Ethanol started at position 17 but driver Ryan Hunter-Reay made a bold move and jumped to 7th almost immediately and has been holding there by mid race.
I’ll post more at the end of the race which, depending on cautions, won’t be long.
The qualifying session for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 got rained out last night so unfortunately that means the drivers will start according to their points standing. That was a blow to Team Ethanol. The car was performing very well and would likely have had a much better starting position. Ryan Hunter-Reay, who spoke at the EPIC member reception last night, says he’ll make up for it though.
Members attending the reception were able to ask him questions, get his autograph and have their pictures taken. This little guy seemed very surprised to be picked up by Ryan for a picture.
You can listen to Ryan’s comments here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/epic/iowa-08-hunter-reay-3.mp3]
“Policy Risks and Consequences for the Biofuels Industry” will be one of the topics addressed during a Farm Foundation conference entitled “Transition to a Bioeconomy: Risks, Infrastructure and Industry Evolution” June 24-25 in Berkeley, California.
Seth Meyer with the University of Missouri’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) will talk about some of the findings in a new report that presents 500 different scenarios based on possible weather, production and other market influences.
Meyer says they found that the two main important factors in any scenario are the price of oil and feedstock production.
“We did this in January and yet we’ve seen oil prices exceed most people’s expectations and that changes the dynamics of which policies are important,” Meyer said. “And then you add to that an unexpected change in (corn) yields and it changes which policies are important yet again.”
Generally speaking, if oil prices are high and production is normal, the Renewable Fuels Standard for corn ethanol is less important. “When we start getting a short crop, those mandates all of the sudden become very binding. It’s a very complicated question,” said Meyer.
When it comes to the blender’s credit, Meyer says that again depends on the situation. “If oil prices would moderate, the mandates would be driving production.”
Listen to an interview with Meyer here:
[audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/farm-foundation/seth-meyer-pre.mp3]
Domestic Fuel will provide coverage of the Transition to a Bioeconomy conference that will include an overview of the industry, how biofuels are impacting other segments of the market, and the bioeconomy’s impacts at the farm level. Other sessions will address risks of the bioeconomy; legal, transportation and public policy infrastructure issues; and the challenges and opportunities of the next decade in research, education, business and finance.
The Ethanol Car wound up practice in the top 10 with a combined (2 sessions) lap speed of 183.114.
Ryan Hunter-Reay, the driver got in 166 practice laps and is ready to go for tomorrow’s race.
To get a sense of what it’s like in the pits, at least in practice, I shot some video during this morning’s session.
After today’s ethanol press conference the media were treated to rides out on the track in the Iowa Speedway Pace Car.
Our driver was Davey Hamilton.
For most of us it was our first time and even though we only went about 95 mph, the curves were tough to deal with. As hard as I was pressing up against the door I was very glad to have my seat belt on.
Monsanto was represented at this morning’s ethanol press conference at the Iowa Speedway by Troy Hobbs, Corn Biofuels Strategy Lead. He started his comments explaining that the company’s mission is to drive productivity in the agricultural sector. He spoke to how quickly they’ve been able to increase the per acre yield in corn with their research on seed and traits.
With their Processor Preferred program they’re working with ethanol plants to make sure they’re getting the corn that is best suited to their production. He also made a good point about how ethanol production is helping keep American dollars in America which is good for our economy.
You can listen to Troy’s comments here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/epic/iowa-08-hobbs.mp3]
Just a few minutes ago I got interviewed by one of the journalists here and he asked what I had heard from corn growers who are at the track. I told him they’re very proud to be growing the fuel that’s being used in the IndyCars out here and that they’ll recover from the flooding problems they’ve been having.
Representing the Iowa Corn Growers Association at this morning’s ethanol press conference was their CEO, Craig Floss. They’re one of the main sponsors of this weekend’s Iowa Corn Indy 250. Craig said he had a chance to fly over the state yesterday and he was not prepared to see how much water is still standing in fields. However, he also had to say that he saw a lot of corn growing in areas outside of the river bottoms. He thinks they’ve still got a good opportunity to produce a good crop this year.
You can listen to Craig’s comments here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/epic/iowa-08-floss.mp3]
One of the speakers at the ethanol industry press conference here at Iowa Speedway this morning was Mike Sobestski, Vice President/COO, LifeLine Foods. Besides talking about the company he also explained how they use various parts of a corn kernel to make food and fuel.
An interesting point he made was that the part they use to make ethanol is the undesirable part that’s not good for much else. He even brought along some jars of product to show reporters the different elements of corn they use. The company and their methods are a great example of how much is being done by ethanol producers today to make their operations more sustainable while helping meet our energy demands.
You can listen to Mike’s comments here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/epic/iowa-08-sobetski.mp3]
This morning at Iowa Speedway, representatives of the ethanol industry held an “inside look at ethanol” press conference. One of the speakers was Toni Nuernberg, Executive Director of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council.
Toni started out talking about the mission of EPIC and talked about the types of promotional work they’ve been doing. She says that motor sports was the springboard that helped get the ethanol message out in the public. She says that working with the IRL has proven the performance capability of the fuel. I thought she made an interesting point in saying that the role of EPIC has evolved to one of defense of the industry due to the attack that has been launched against it.
You can listen to Toni’s comments here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/epic/iowa-08-toni.mp3]
We had a sunny day yesterday at Iowa Speedway until mid-afternoon when a thunderstorm popped up and absolutely drenched the track. It cut short practice plans although there’s going to be plenty of that today if the weather cooperates.
I found Team Ethanol driver, Ryan Hunter-Reay, seen walking to the first practice session yesterday, taking a break near the team garage. He seemed pretty pleased with the car’s performance and as of now is still 7th in practice speed.
You can listen to my interview with Ryan here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/epic/iowa-08-hunter-reay-2.mp3]
