BRASELTON — The American Le Mans Series prides itself on being at the forefront of autosports’ technology, especially when it comes to improving the planet.

Sure, the 12-year-old racing series contains some of the best drivers sitting in some of the most technologically advanced cars in the world, but while those drivers thrive on putting on a good show in those cars, the manufactures are focused on something completely different.

“We’re trying to give manufacturers a reason to use this series not only for entertainment, but to showcase their technical competence,” said Doug Robinson, the green racing consultant for ALMS. “They can incorporate these same technologies that they are advertising for their road cars next year or in three years.”

That’s where alternative fuels come in. Last year, ALMS launched its Green Racing Challenge, which urged manufacturers to think outside the box and run their cars on a more environmentally safe energy source.

“The idea is to showcase that all of these fuels, when you’re able to use them for your road car, are equally good fuels,” Robinson said. “We need all of them to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by 2020.”

Whether it be through ultra, low sulfur diesel that’s used by the Audi and Peugeots, or the butanol used for the first time by the No. 16 Mazda car, manufacturers are making it a point to use the cars in ALMS to test the technology. And no manufacturer is putting more emphasis on this than General Motors and its Corvette racing team that won the Green Racing Challenge last year and is powered by e85 fuel.

“It’s keeping up with General Motors’ philosophy of greening up the planet and what can be done from an automotive standpoint,” said Corvette team owner Doug Feehan. “We don’t look at e85 as an answer, we look at it as the first step in part of the solution.”

For Corvette and GM, that could mean a step toward improving a fallen company.

“I think by virtue of the fact that we’re here competing, tells you how much of a role Corvette racing plays inside GM,” Feehan said. “There’s obviously the marketing factor, but more importantly is this technology transfer. All the things we’re applying here on the race car are all applicable to all the GM vehicles from the Cobalt to the Escalade.

“If we weren’t of extreme value to our corporation and our stock brokers, we wouldn’t be here.”

That mentality by other companies is expanding ALMS.

“Some teams are coming to us because we are doing this,” Robinson said. “They cannot only race, but they can develop solutions that are good for the betterment of the world.”