Green Power Sports Tour
ON THE AMERICAN OPEN ROAD, U.S.A. — What’s lime green, more than 20 years old, and smells like french fries? Sports fans across the nation are seeing - and smelling - for themselves because the 2007 AutoTrader.com Green Power Sports Tour (http://www.greenpowersportstour.com) is in progress and coming to a sports town near you. Freelance sports writer Joe Connor of San Diego, backed by sponsor support that also includes MapQuest and StubHub, will visit more than 100 premiere college and pro football, hockey and basketball venues over the next four months, showcasing the slick, lime green, renewable energy machine during tailgating before games. The 1984 Mercedes Benz runs on vegetable oil and biodiesel, and the tour officially began Dec. 30 in Denver at Invesco Field at Mile High, home of the two-time Super Bowl champion Broncos. This will be the second, cross-country journey for Connor, who in 2006 visited 272 baseball parks over an entire baseball season of 215 days (lots of doubleheaders!). Connor is chronicling the journey for his weekly hometown newspaper as well as via a blog on the Internet at http://www.greenpowersportstourblog.com.
Connor’s Mercedes is a two-tank fuel system. He uses primarily biodiesel (but occasionally diesel) at start up. Biodiesel is a cleaner form of diesel that is about the same cost in many parts of the country as diesel, and can be used as fuel in any diesel engine car.
Once the car is started, radiator fluid transfers heat from the engine to the heat exchangers in the fuel system. These exchangers heat the vegetable oil in the fuel filter, lines and fuel tank (The 13-gallon second tank is located in Connor’s trunk in the spare tire well). The heat reduces the viscosity of vegetable oil so that it is similar to biodiesel or diesel, and can be injected into the engine properly. Connor simply presses a switch to run on vegetable oil once the car’s temperature is between 80-100 degrees.
When the engine is shut down for several hours, Connor switches back to biodiesel or diesel so remaining cold vegetable oil doesn’t clog up the injectors the next time the engine is started.
Connor gets used vegetable oil for his fuel from local restaurants. He has an elaborate filtration system in his trunk that enables him to take waste vegetable oil and turn it into fuel. Connor will tailgate the car in a high-foot traffic area before games, and will show fans how the filtration system works. Connor will use MapQuest Gas Prices to find the nearest biodiesel stations. He purchased the Mercedes off AutoTrader.com in late 2005 for $2,000 and had it converted to also run on vegetable oil.
“I would like to thank AutoTrader.com for their support as the official title sponsor,” said Connor, 35, who has been a freelance sports writer since 1997. I would also like to thank MapQuest and StubHub for their support as primary sponsors as well. It’s going to be a great journey, visiting more than 50 college campuses, and cities and towns across the U.S. and into Quebec and Ontario Canada as well.
The college football portion of the schedule includes showcasing the car before more than 25 of the premiere college football venues in the U.S., including Auburn, Alabama, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan, LSU, Oklahoma, and many others such as the Army-Navy game on Dec. 1 in Baltimore. Already the tour visited the University of Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium (Sept. 1) as well as “The Bowden Bowl” on Sept. 3 in Clemson’s “Death Valley,” pitting ACC rivals, Florida State and Bobby Bowden against his son, Tommy Bowden, and the Tigers. Joe also took in the South Carolina at Georgia game, Sept. 8.
Highlights of the upcoming schedule include Arkansas at Alabama for Nick Saban’s first SEC home game (Sept. 15), Auburn at Florida’s “Swamp” (Sept. 29), Kentucky at South Carolina (Oct. 4), Georgia at Tennessee (Oct. 6) and Arkansas at LSU (Nov. 23). And that’s just for starters. Additional big games on the 2007 AutoTrader.com Green Power Sports Tour slate include USC at Notre Dame (Oct. 20) and Big 10 battles such as Ohio State at Happy Valley to battle Penn State (Oct. 27), Wisconsin at Ohio State (Nov. 3), Michigan at Wisconsin’s Camp Randall (Nov. 10), and college football’s biggest rivalry, Ohio State at “The Big House” to face Michigan (Nov. 17). The schedule also includes the traditional ”Bedlam” showdown with Oklahoma State visiting in-state rival Oklahoma in Norman (Nov. 24), plus the 100th annual “Backyard Brawl” with Pittsburgh visiting West Virginia (Dec. 1).
Connor will also visit more than 20 NFL venues, including storied Lambeau Field in Green Bay and Texas Stadium outside Dallas on Thanksgiving Day, as well as stops in Tampa Bay, New York, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Chicago, Washington, New England, Tennessee and others. The slate includes four Monday Night games, starting Sept. 24 in New Orleans, followed by Cincinnati (Oct. 1), Buffalo (Oct. 8), and Pittsburgh (Nov. 5). Among the big rivalry match ups are Minnesota at Green Bay (Nov. 11) and Oakland at Kansas City (Nov. 25).
The hockey slate includes visits to 14 top NHL venues, including Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Detroit, Buffalo, Pittsburgh and historic Madison Square Garden, home of Connor’s favorite team growing up, the New York Rangers who will face the rival Islanders (Nov. 29). Connor will make his first visit to the home of hockey’s national pastime, Canada, beginning on Canada Day, Oct. 8, and will take in 10 Canadian major junior hockey league games across Quebec and Ontario, including visits to Le Colisee in Quebec City, plus Kitchener, Peterborough, and Hamilton, Ontario’s Copps Coliseum, among others. Defending national champion Michigan State highlights the U.S. men’s college hockey slate, which also includes visits to Michigan, Wisconsin, Boston University, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Cornell, Princeton and more.
The men’s college basketball portion of the AutoTrader.com Green Power Sports Tour kicks off with a visit to Kentucky on Nov. 6, followed by visits to Michigan State, Syracuse, Kansas, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio State, Duke, North Carolina State, North Carolina and defending national champion Florida, among others. Among the big games on the men’s college hoops slate are Arizona at Kansas (Nov. 25) and North Carolina at Ohio State (Nov. 28). Connor will also take in at least seven NBA games, starting with a Nov. 20 game in Hoops country at Conseco Fieldhouse as the Indiana Pacers host the Los Angeles Lakers, with visits also to Cleveland and Boston, among others. Connor also plans to visit the pro football, hockey and basketball hall of fames, as well as the NCAA Hall of Champions and College Football museums. The tour is expected to conclude Dec. 23.
A complete tour schedule is available at the official tour Web site, http://www.greenpowersportstour.com, and below is information about each sponsor, as well as each sponsors’ media contact information. For general information on the AutoTrader.com Green Power Sports Tour, or to speak with Joe Connor, please call the media hotline at 858-531-7128.
About AutoTrader.com
AutoTrader.com, created in 1997 and headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., is the Internet’s leading auto classifieds marketplace and consumer information website. AutoTrader.com aggregates in a single location more than 3 million vehicle listings from 40,000 dealers and 250,000 private owners, which provide the largest selection of vehicles attracting more than 13 million qualified buyers each month. Through innovative merchandising products such as multiple photos and comprehensive search functionality, AutoTrader.com unites buyer and seller online - dramatically improving the way people research, locate and advertise vehicles.
AutoTrader.com is a majority-owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises. The venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is also an investor.
AutoTrader.com Media Contact: Jason Jager
About MapQuest
MapQuest offers Internet, wireless and business solutions that help people find places. MapQuest is one of the most recognized and trusted brands on the Internet and is the leading consumer Web site for maps and directions, serving more than 53 million users in June 2007, according to comScore Media Metrix. MapQuest, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL LLC, is based in Denver, Colorado.
MapQuest/AOL Media Contact: Allie Burns, AOL Corporate Communications, 703-265-3492, Allie.Burns@corp.aol.com
About StubHub
StubHub is the world’s largest ticket marketplace, enabling fans to buy and sell tickets at fair market value to a vast selection of sporting, concert, theater and other live entertainment events, even those that are “sold out.” StubHub reinvented the ticket resale market in 2000 and continues to lead through innovation. The company’s unique open marketplace, dedicated solely to tickets, provides all fans the choice to buy or sell their tickets in a safe, convenient, and highly reliable environment. All transactions are processed and delivered via StubHub’s patent-pending FanNetwork(SM) ticket delivery service, supported by seven-day toll free customer service at 1-866-STUBHUB, and backed by an industry-first FanProtect Guarantee. Company partners include MLB.com and over 30 teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL and NCAA along with numerous media companies including AOL and CBS.
StubHub is an eBay company (NASDAQ: EBAY). For more information on StubHub, visit www.stubhub.com.
StubHub Media Contact: Joellen Ferrer, 415-222-8412, jferrer@stubhub.com
