A hydrogen-powered Mazda rotary engine could be raced in the American Le-Mans Series as early as next year.

Mazda North America is looking at converting its three-rotor LMP2 powerplant, used last year in the works backed B-K Motorsports team, from gasoline to zero-emissions hydrogen, It would employ technology already pioneered in Japan by its parent company on a special version of its RX-8 rotary engined sportscar.

Robert Davis, the Mazda North American executive who looks after motorsport, said:

"We have been investigating this for one and a half years and the arrival of the Audi R10 turbo-diesel prototype has generated a lot of publicity for alterative fuels. We see a big benefit to going racing with a zero emissions power plant".
" There is a road car running in Japan and the transformation of technology for a racing application would be relatively straightforward. Many of the internal parts on our race engines are the same as standard."

The biggest obstacle Mazda and B-K must overcome is storing the fuel in the prototype race car.

"Clearly there is a bigger volume required with a hygrogen gas than a gasoline", Davis explained, "We haven't cracked the code for how to store the fuel yet".

"We are looking at many options, we want to keep the tank between the engine and the driver because that is the safest place, but we are also looking at other areas of the car. Storing hydrogen in liquid form could be another option, but that presents its own problems due to the low temperatures required".