Raceway Hosts 2nd Sustainable Performance Summit

The raceway in Sonoma will hosts its 2ndannual Accelerating Sustainable Performance Summit on Friday, Sept. 7, bringing together industry leaders from the business, motor sports, engineering, research and media communities to explore prospects for sustainable automotive development and performance.

This year’s summit, which will be hosted in the raceway’s Simraceway Performance Driving Center, will be headlined by two topics:

  • The presentation of the beta-version of a Sustainable Performance Ranking Metric. The raceway, in collaboration with Dominican University of California’s Green MBA program, has developed a new rating system for vehicles that combines the factors most closely associated with BOTH sustainability and performance. The metric, which has undergone preliminary vetting in both the industry and academic communities, provides a ranking of the top 100 selling consumer vehicles, as well as popular hybrid and alternative-fuel models.
  • The State of Sustainable Racing will also be discussed by a panel representing sanctioning bodies, manufacturers, competitors and the media. The raceway, along with Dominican University, produced a comprehensive research report which examines 16 case studies in alternate fuel and electric racing. The report examines race series such as NASCAR and INDYCAR, as well as the Veolia World Solar Challenge.

The summit begins at 9 a.m. with an address from Steve Page, president and general manager of the raceway in Sonoma.

“We are very excited with the lineup for our second ASP summit,” said Page. “Last year, we introduced the concept of linking sustainability and performance and dealt with issues on a very broad level.  In the year since we’ve been able to move the effort in a much more substantive and practical direction and have drawn in a very impressive cast for this summit to help us drill down even further.”

Neil Duffy will serve as the keynote speaker for the event. Duffy’s professional career spans 25 years in the sports and entertainment industry with the last five years having been focused on the “space” at the intersection of sport and sustainability. He has held senior executive leadership positions including President of Octagon Europe, Middle East Africa and was the Chief Marketing and Sustainability Officer for the 34th America’s Cup.

The day will also include several on-track demonstrations by high-performance sustainable vehicles, highlighted by KleenSpeed establishing the raceway’s electric-vehicle lap time record. Other on-track demos include Fisker (electric performance vehicle), Yokohama (Orange Oil Tires), CalSol (solar powered racecar), Mission Motors (electric motorcycles) and Alliance Auto (natural gas police car), among others.

Partners on the program include Amyris, Panasonic, PG&E, Safety-Kleen, Yokohama, Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc., Fuel 21, KleenSpeed and Dominican University’s Green MBA program.

For more information on the 2nd annual Accelerating Sustainable Performance Summit, visit www.acceleratingsustainableperformance.com.

Sonoma Raceway PR