After racing for more than 12 hours straight, the No. 2 Audi driven by the team of Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello finished more than 3 laps ahead of No. 37 Lola BO5/40-AER of Intersport Racing.

What is even more impressive is that the No. 2 Audi – although qualifying fastest for the endurance race – was forced to start from 34th place and from pit lane after the team replaced a faulty heat exchanger in the prototype.

Team Audi still has a number of kinks to fix in the diesel powered prototypes to ensure success at Le Mans, it’s main objective for the year. The No. 1 Audi prototype was forced to retire four hours into the race with overheating problems.

"We had our share of trouble today, but that’s natural in development," said McNish, who won for the second time in three years at Sebring. "This was the first real endurance test. We encountered trouble but nothing we couldn’t overcome. The engineers did a great job preparing for things that could go wrong. The car’s rhythm was really good. It was fun to really blast the car around the track."

Who would have thought that a diesel-powered could be fun on the racing circuit like Sebring? And that it would be leaving gasoline-powered cars in the process?

We’ve had fun with a diesel-powered rally vehicle – an Isuzu – a few years back but that’s quite different from a speed racing circuit. But we remember coming in ahead of a number of gasoline-powered rally cars during the race.

The Audi diesel prototype race car should make a lot of people think differently about diesel engines.

Meanwhile, the Indy Racing League racing series in the US should also be making people think differently about the ethanol-blended fuel that is being pushed locally by our energy officials.

This year, Indycar race cars powered by Honda HI6R Indy V-8 engines will be using a 10-90 blend of ethanol and methanol. This is in preparation for the use of 100 percent ethanol in 2007.

Indycar drivers say there was no diminution in the performance of the engine using this year’s fuel blend (10 percent ethanol and 90 percent methanol).

According to Phil Casey, Indycar senior technical director, with ethanol’s many similarities to methanol hard-core race fans won’t be disappointed.

"Our cars won’t sound differently, smell differently or run differently than they have in the past," he said. "There will be a seamless transition from methanol to ethanol."

Maybe our energy officials should encourage the use of ethanol in local racing events.

Energy officials should get ideas from how Indycar is promoting the use of ethanol.

Indycar says that while both methanol and ethanol have the high-octane oomph required for smooth, powerful combustion in an Indy car’s high-compression engine, ethanol is more earth-friendly.

Ethanol is produced from a variety of plants, including corn, milo/sorghum, sugar cane.

It’s non-toxic and biodegradable.

The IndyCar Series is helping spread the good word about ethanol’s benefits as a motor fuel for street cars.