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Greenie: Driver Munter has an eco agenda
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Published: July 27, 2008
INDIANAPOLIS - She describes her story as "a vegetarian hippie chick race-car driver's journey to be carbon neutral."
Well, it's an interesting twist in this got-to-have-a-gimmick sports world. So when it comes to fighting NASCAR's image as a gas-guzzlers' delight, Mike Helton and Brian France, the two at the top of the sport's operations, might want to consider Leilani Munter, and what she bills as her "Eco Dream Team."
Munter's handle: For every race she runs, she buys an acre of rain forest, to offset her "carbon footprint."
And while she can talk ethanol-methanol-smethanol with the best of the meth-heads, she can also rattle off details of algae-based bio-fuels and other alternatives to America's addiction to high octane. And the past few weeks she's been up on Capitol Hill politicking for Joe Lieberman's Climate Security Act.
Looking for a break
Don't laugh now: She's been a stunt double for Catherine Zeta-Jones, so she can roll in the mud if she has to.
Munter, who just moved into an Energy Star home in Cornelius, complete with rainwater storage, solar-water heating and composting, is rather forceful about this eco-thing. Her trips to D.C. to talk with Washington politicians about global warming, Al Gore's initiatives and Lieberman's bill should catch someone's eyes in politically savvy Daytona: Get her a decent NASCAR ride, and an eco-aware sponsor or two and give her a good base for that politicking, which could obviously help NASCAR's image.
Oh, yes, she is a race-car driver ... although at the moment between rides.
Munter was one of 41 young, promising female racers here at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Lyn St. James' annual women-in-racing seminar/luncheon, a meet-and-greet networking affair for a quite diverse group of drivers handpicked by St. James (who has been Ford Motor Company's right-hand woman for years on that company's aggressive female marketing program).
President Mike Helton and other top NASCAR executives were at the seminar and playing a prominent role, providing logistics and hefty media support, and also accepting awards for pioneer racers Sara Christian and Louise Smith, who were the first women racers in NASCAR, back in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Noticeably missing from the program were NASCAR's top car owners: Rick Hendrick, Jack Roush, Richard Childress and Joe and J.D. Gibbs (although the Gibbses did send a check of support). Why these car owners, who were in town anyway for the Brickyard 400, wouldn't at least have given these drivers the courtesy of at least a drop-in/look-see and say hi is a remarkable slap in the face, one that Helton and France, the NASCAR CEO, shouldn't let them get away with. Jeff Gordon, a car owner himself, with Hendrick, would have been a nice addition to the dais ... but he was too busy over at a local bowling alley. And a number of other NASCAR stars and bigwigs who could have at least dropped by were around the corner on an Indianapolis golf course. Those snubs shouldn't go unnoticed.
But that -- and NASCAR's continuing difficulties in leveraging the marketing potential of a successful female racer, especially notable this year with Danica Patrick's IndyCar breakthrough and Ashley Force's NHRA headlines -- is another story.
This story is about Leilani Munter. She is quite polished, outgoing, well-spoken … and photogenic.
Patrick wasn't here (but then, she's already made it). But most of these female drivers could certainly give her a run for the money in PR and telegenics, particularly the amazingly precocious Natalie Fenaroli, who says her goal in life is to make it to Formula One and kick Lewis Hamilton's butt. Fenaroli is all of 12. But, hey, wasn't that when Joey Logano first caught Mark Martin's eye?
Munter, like all these women, has a day job, apart from sponsorship hunting. It's been all but impossible for female racers to crack the big leagues and hold on. Even women who should clearly be able to make a go of it, such as Erin Crocker, struggle.
When she's not racing or sponsor hunting or testing, Munter is a spokesman for the global-warming initiatives of the National Wildlife Federation. She's very active in the eco movement, with her own eco Web site, dedicated to sustainable living, with clean bio-fuels.
Munter has twice traveled to Washington this year to lobby Congress on behalf of the Climate Security Act, which failed to pass, and was likely to be vetoed by President Bush regardless: "We knew the odds were stacked against us. But next year, when there is a new administration in place, it looks like we're set up to pass it. And hopefully in November and December, when the meetings happen in Copenhagen, maybe we can come up with some type of global agreement.
"The Climate Security Act was like the first step for the United States."
Munter is certainly not your average run-of-the-mill wannabe racer. "I came out of biology -- I started playing around with race cars when I was in college in San Diego, with the Allison Legacy cars -- which is one reason I'm so interested in ecology," she said.
While in Los Angeles stunt doubling, she saved her money to go to racing schools in 2001. Now she's trying to match the two interests, along with a hotshot career as a model, although she prefers to downplay that bit of glamour (although if men's magazine FHM wants the quarterpanel of her race car again, she's ready).
And she certainly knows how to promote herself: five magazine covers, plus features in Vogue and Esquire, and FHM billing her as "the hottest woman in NASCAR." Earlier this month she did a photo-shoot for Lucky Jeans' new ad campaign this fall. Look for her on a billboard or magazine near you soon.
Striking a balance
Her racing career has been fitful so far, from Late Models to Texas Motor Speedway in 2004, and then Kentucky Speedway in 2006, and Daytona ARCA testing this past winter for a ride that didn't quite come together, and then some Indy testing.
But she's got a star she's hitched up to, one way or the other.
"You'll either see me in ARCA or Indy Lights next year. My background is in stock cars, but I've had a blast in the IndyCars."
She tested at Daytona in December and got the okay to run in February's ARCA 200, only to have financial backing fall through. She then got a call from an IndyCar team to test. She got her Indy license last year and ran Kentucky Speedway in Indy Lights last August, qualifying fifth and running in the top five until caught up in a crash. She also ran Indy Lights at Chicago.
At the moment Munter is trying to jump start her racing career. With oil at outrageous prices, her timing may be just right.
And now it may be up to NASCAR execs to help put the right deal together for her.
"The future," she said, perhaps with a nod toward General Motors' greenie boss Brent Dewar, "is cellulosic-ethanol. Which is not corn-based ethanol.
"They're doing it from all different ways, even turning trash into ethanol, though that is a little more costly. And the first cellulosic-ethanol plant opened in Georgia six months ago.
"There is algae-based bio-diesel: There is a guy hanging vertical slabs of tubing, with water going through them, just long enough for the algae to photosynthesize. So on the same amount of land that you can make 30 gallons of corn-based ethanol, he can make 100,000 gallons of algae-based bio-diesel.
"But I can't very well talk to Congress and then just slap any decals on my race car. So I am reaching out to the racing community, the racing world, and eco-friendly companies. I only want to partner with people who are doing positive things. I'm in talks with some different bio-fuel companies, that are on the cutting edge of developing new, cleaner technologies."
It is not without its hazards, of course: "When I first started speaking out about the environment a few years back, I had some marketing people from NASCAR come to me and say, ‘We think you're making a big mistake. You, as a driver, shouldn't be talking about these controversial things like global warming. You should just be plugging your sponsors.'
"And it kind of discouraged me from talking about it.
"But I feel if a company doesn't want to work with me because I'm promoting recycling and renewable energy, it's probably not a good fit for them to be on my race car.
"I did just talk with Mike Helton, and I'm planning to make a trip down to Daytona, along with some other people who are working on stuff like this....
"I don't think NASCAR is closed to bio-fuels. But it's obviously something that can't happen overnight; there are changes that would have to made to the motors. But he did sound like they were open to this."
Reaching out
"Racing is something I love, I have a huge passion for it, and I want to race as much as I can for as long as I can," she said of her dueling careers. "But I feel I finally now have an audience, and I want to use my voice to talk about things I feel are important, like climate change and global warming and recycling.
"My last race at Chicago, I wore, under my driving suit, a T-shirt that said ‘Recycle,' so when I did my interviews people were asking me about that.
"The strategic relationships I'm starting to form are with people who are the same mind-set I am, eco-friendly. And I think more companies are becoming aware of their impact on the environment.
"Whether that winds up with me in IndyCars or ARCA, well, I like both. But my base is in stock cars. And I could still have a good five to 10 years ahead in racing -- I try to stay young. I'm only 32 and I still get carded.... I give a lot of talks and explain about my struggle to make it in racing, and how my eco-friendly mind-set has affected my racing career in positive and negative ways.
"There are some fans it rubs the wrong way: They don't like it that I'm promoting An Inconvenient Truth because they think I'm a weird, greenie, vegetarian chick from California. But I read it all and laugh."
"And then I also get a lot of letters from race fans who say, ‘I love going to the racetrack, I've been going to races for 15 years, but I'm also eco-conscious and I almost feel guilty for going to cheer for the cars, feeling it's a waste of fuel and tires … and feeling these two parts of my life could never come together.'
"So I'm trying to reach out to those race fans and tell them about how I'm going green and hope that some of them will jump on board with me.
"And I get letters from people asking, ‘Can you tell me how to go about ‘adopting' an acre of rainforest?' And every time I get an e-mail like that I feel like I'm making a small effect ... even though I'm not in the top level of IndyCar or NASCAR, where I could be reaching a lot more people."
■ Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhern@wsjournal.com.
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