ECONOTES : Charging Right Along

Gentlemen, start your engines.

No . . . wait . . . charge your batteries.

It’s the environmental ‘90s, and although the sports car race set for Sunday in Long Beach may be as competitive as the Indy 500, it won’t be as noisy or polluting.

The Electrathon Competition will feature ultra-light electric vehicles with limited battery packs speeding silently around the Queen Mary parking lot, their drivers testing who can go farthest before running out of power in a one-hour rally. Prizes will be awarded for efficiency, strategy, aerodynamics and speed.

The 8 a.m. race is part of the fourth International Inventors and Entrepreneurs Inventech Expo expected to attract thousands to the Queen Mary Friday through Sunday. “It’s an unconventional convention,” says Alan Tratner, international president of the sponsoring Inventors Workshop.

The expo will include 75 workshops and seminars on marketing, patenting and promoting inventions, plus an Imagination Fair as part of a Young Inventors Conference.

“We have an environmental look this year,” says Tratner. That includes workshops on Green Certification and Eco-Inventing/Entrepreneurship. And in addition to the Sunday Electrathon, a planet-friendly assortment of electric cars, human-powered vehicles and alternative energy vehicles will be on display dockside.

For more information: (805) 484-9786.