TOOELE — Salt Lake City-based Corsa Motorsports will debut the first hybrid car to race full-time in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) Sunday at Miller Motorsports Park.
Owner Steve Pruitt's quest over the past year to produce the Ginetta-Zytek GZ09-SH has run like a race — unpredictable and exciting.
Maybe a little too exciting at times.
Early this week, Pruitt huddled with his crew over a dissembled race car in his motorsports garage. At three in the morning, the crew had discovered oil in the water and water in the oil. "Not good," Pruitt deadpans.
The crew replaced the engine, tackling yet another issue in a litany of things that could go wrong, in much the same way they've handled everything else — with cool-headedness.
In April, wires couldn't communicate with new software. No problem. For the next three weeks, engineers rewired the car by hand. This past week, en route from the UK to Utah, the car was held by customs officials due to possible bug infestation of shipping pallets. That, too, was resolved.
It's just another day in the life of Steve Pruitt, 60, race car owner and commercial real estate developer.
When asked if she could think of a time when Pruitt had to deal with adversity, his wife, Tere, laughs. "Every minute," she says.
"Times are tough," she says, "and sometimes he has tenants who have trouble making payments. Steve always says, 'There's got to be a solution.' When there is a problem (with the hybrid car), Steve tries to figure it out and turns negative energy around."
Capable of speeds faster than 200 miles per hour, the Ginetta-Zytek isn't exactly your commuter hybrid, though it runs on a similar concept.
A device called kinetic recovery system converts the car's kinetic energy (from braking) into electric energy, which is then stored in a 140-volt lithium-ion battery, equivalent to 12 car batteries in the size of one. When the driver pushes a button on the steering wheel, he releases the stored energy into an inverter that changes the current from DC to AC, powering the electric motor. The battery connects directly to a V8 engine that runs on ethanol fuel.
The prototype car, with its appreciable fuel savings, energy efficiency and lower carbon footprint, garners praise from industry professionals like ALMS president Scott Atherton and Motorsports Park media manager John Gardner.
Gardner says, "Disc brakes and rear view mirrors are car features we take for granted but were perfected in race cars." Similarly, Gardner contends, Pruitt's pioneering efforts could pave the way for better hybrid technology in road cars — and bodes well for the environment.
Known for developing large-scale commercial real estate like the Triad Center, Pruitt first came up with the idea of the hybrid a year ago. Previously he raced Ferraris.
"I was commiserating with my wife about high oil prices, and we decided to take a flying leap and come up with a hybrid racing car," he says. "I liked the idea of being the first to do this."
Pruitt likens this venture to putting a NASA project together but concedes, "It's a mild hybrid as opposed to a full hybrid. It's like Alan Shepard, the first American in space, compared to Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon."
When asked how much it cost to commission UK-based Zytek Group to build this "green" car, Pruitt laughs and says, "It's expensive." In an industry known for lucrative sponsorships, the Pruitts, who have personally funded this venture, are a rarity.
This week, questions swirl around the hybrid car, foremost of which is, will it make it through its first Miller Motorsports Park shakedown today, and its qualifying run Saturday?
With Brit Johnny Mowlem and Swede Stefan Johannson driving and a16-man crew headed by Adrian Lindsey, Pruitt's confident the answer will be "yes."
Utah Grand Prix
The Utah Grand Prix from Miller Motorsports Park, Tooele, is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. MDT on Sunday. The Utah Grand Prix will be the last track time for many of the teams before they head to France for the legendary 24 Hours of LeMans, slated for mid-June.
Tickets are available at americanlemans.com or millermotorsportspark.com.