Racing Fuel Courts Outdoor Equipment Market

VP Racing Fuels announced three blends of premium fuel designed for small engines at the GIE+Expo in Louisville, Kentucky in October. The new fuels are an alternative to a gasoline blend with higher ethanol content recently approved by the EPA that can do significant damage to small engines.

During a sparsely attended press conference at October’s GIE+Expo in Louisville, VP Racing Fuels quietly announced their solution to the E15 problem that has been vexing outdoor power equipment users nationwide.

Steve Burns, VP’s CEO, said that the boutique racing fuel company has released three versions of VP Small Engine Fuel, including a gasoline for 4-cycle engines and two blends pre-mixed with oil for 2-cycle applications. The fuel comes in four sizes: quarts, gallons, 4-gallon pails and 54-gallon drums, and will remain stable “for years in its original sealed container,” according to a product statement.

For the outdoor power equipment market – which relies heavily on small, gasoline-powered engines in lawn and landscape work – these “alternative” fuels are the latest response to the EPA’s mandate for increased levels of ethanol in gasoline. The regulatory agency recently green-lit the E15 blend, which ups the ethanol content in fuel from 10 to 15 percent.

Outdoor Power Equipment Institute CEO Kris Kiser said E15 “destroys small engines "?(R)? like a cancer,” at a GIE+Expo press conference. Kiser testified before Congress earlier this year, explaining that E15 causes “excessive engine heat, melting of plastic guards, fuel leaks, evaporative emissions issues, unintended early clutch engagement and permanent engine damage” to small engines.

Kiser spoke to landscapearchitect.com before the expo about E15 and other issues facing the outdoor equipment industry. The protests against ethanol-blended fuels are supported by research from the National Academy of Sciences, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Working Group and other independent analysts that show adding corn to fuel is both wasteful of agricultural resources and inefficient as a renewable energy source.

VP hopes soon to announce distribution agreements with rental and equipment dealers, and major retailers. VP’s Small Engine Fuel is currently available for online purchase at vp-sef.com.