I hear this all the time. In fact, it's not uncommon for most people I speak with to find the issue of being a motor racing fan and caring about the environment to be a contradiction. I would like to explain my thoughts on both of these subjects and try to bring some clarity.
Very few things out there get me more excited than racing. I even like the smell of race gas. The loud engines and exhausts giving off noise and vibrations...all very sexy to me. Automotive performance both in NASCAR, road racing, open wheel...you name it and I respect and love it. High performance in street cars like Porsche and Ferrari are appreciated and loved by myself and so many. It's my personal belief that these cars, race cars and performance street cars, have reason and practical use of burning petrol.
I also believe fossil fuel is a high performance fuel and it should be used for high performance applications. This may offend or confuse some or many of you out there, however, I stand firm in stating that burning fossil fuel in a mini van driving your kids to school or in a "so called" economy vehicle on your way to work is not efficient or even a practical use of said fossil fuel.
It's fair that everyone should have the choice to drive what kind of car or vehicle they want and desire. The freedom and liberty that we enjoy on the road way is an amazing thing. I would like to go on to guess that many people currently burning petrol in their daily driver, would change that fuel choice if they had other options that were cost relative and easy to access.
Regarding the subject of transportation, fossil fuel may or may not be the best way to ship and transport goods and it's possible there could be better solutions. In order for us to ever find other options we need to be open to looking at the questions and exploring more with technology.
Let the race cars burn the "race gas" and let petrol be used in high performance vehicles. For everyone else that doesn't desire the suck and blow of the ICE or wants other options for daily driving, I really hope our development of cleaner methods to commute and transport come sooner than later. We can find more options for the road than just simply fossil fuel for everyone.
