Jefferson City, MO – NEVC, and NEVC members General Motors and the Ohio Corn Growers Association (OCGA), highlighted E85 and sponsored Night Under Fire at Norwalk Raceway Park in Norwalk, Ohio on July 1. The largest single day drag race in the world featured Mark Thomas, five-time IHRA Alcohol Funny Car World Champion.

OCGA coordinated the event to showcase Ohio’s potential for E85. Haydocy Automotive of Columbus, Ohio brought together local dealer representatives to show their support for E85 and Live Green, Go Yellow. General Motors displayed eight E85 wrapped vehicles for the over 40,000 attendees at the race.

Mark Thomas, with a 2006 GM Monte Carlo dragster powered by E85, has been an outstanding spokesperson for ethanol since the Ohio Corn Marketing Program started sponsoring his team in 1990. “You cannot imagine how excited I was to learn that GM and the NEVC were going to partner to put on an outstanding event. E85 stole the show,” stated Thomas.

Dwayne Siekman, Executive Director of OCGA added, “Developing E85 infrastructure is important to the state of Ohio and what better way to showcase the potential of this great fuel than to bring together two key players in the industry to the state. General Motors has played a major role in our efforts with in-state promotion with Mark Thomas as well as the national Live Green, Go Yellow campaign. Also, we would not have had the success with E85 infrastructure in Ohio without the assistance of the NEVC. Just recently, Ohio passed an E85 infrastructure program through the state legislature, which has really opened the doors for more E85 availability. Phil Lampert of the coalition helped in the passage of this significant bill.”

Along with Ohio Governor Taft’s signing of the bill mentioned above, a major announcement is expected tomorrow that will bring many E85 stations to the state in upcoming months.

At this time, Ohio has eight E85 facilities open to the public and two privately accessed locations. For a complete listing of stations, go to www.E85Fuel.com.

Siekman went on, “Next year we hope to make this an even larger event with GM and the NEVC. We thank them both for their sponsorship and hope together we can celebrate the advances Ohio will have made in E85. Ohio has over 200,000 FFVs and with the coordinated efforts of the NEVC and the OCGA, we can bring E85 to all of them.”

For photos of this event, click here.

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