Round 16: Grand Prix of Portland, Portland International Raceway. Aug 29-Sept 1.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 16: Grand Prix of Portland, Portland International Raceway. Aug 29-Sept 1.


Portland returned to AOWR after an 11 year hiatus, having previously been part of the CART/Champ Car schedule from 1984-2007.

Portland International Raceway is part of the Delta Park complex, on the former site of Vanport, just south of the Columbia River. The venue hosts ICSCC, SCCA and OMRRA road racing as well as the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West and SCCA autocross events.

The city of Vanport was hastily built by Henry Kaiser in 1942, to house World War II shipyard workers, with a population of more than 40,000. It was the second largest city in Oregon at the time and the largest public housing project in the USA. Vanport lay between the contemporary Portland city limits and the Columbia River, on reclaimed lowlands and was protected by a system of dykes, which held the waters back. Tragically, after weeks of heavy rain, the dykes failed at 4.17pm on Memorial Day, May 30, 1948. A 10-feet high wall of water rushed in killing 15 people,
flooding the entire city and destroying all the buildings. With no prospect of Vanport being habitable, the city was abandoned.

In 1960, the city of Portland bought the land from the Army Corps of Engineers for $175,000. Racing enthusiasts saw the potential of the land and the Portland Rose Festival Association was persuaded to sponsor a race and so the Rose Cup was born, with its first running in June 1961.

The race has been an important part of the Rose Festival ever since. However, racing on the old city streets was dangerous, with drivers leaving the track unexpectedly or colliding with leftover concrete foundations or even finding themselves driving into ponds! Under threat of losing the Rose Cup races, as many of the sanctioning bodies refused to back races due to the deteriorating roads, the track was finally paved in the 1970s.

Funded by a $100,000 loan arranged by the Rose Festival Association from four banks, all of the money were paid back by 1973 and the facility has operated as a commercial enterprise ever since, generating a profit for the City of Portland and meaning it requires zero funding by the taxpayer.

In 1975, the track changed its name from West Delta Park, to Portland International Raceway and hosted the third round of the Trans-Am Series, the premier series of the Sports Car Club of America, which was won by John Greenwood, driving a Chevrolet Corvette, who went on to win the
championship that year.

On June 17, 1984, Portland hosted the fifth round of the CART PPG/IndyCar series, Stroh's 200 Miles, though for nearly its entire existence, the title sponsor of the race was G.I. Joe's sporting goods and auto parts store. It was won by Al Unser, Jr, in a March 84C-Cosworth DFX, driving for Galles Racing.

The race became a perennial on the calendar, up until the Mazda Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland, which was the last race, as a Champ Car event and held on June 10, 2007. It was won by Sébastien Bourdais, in a Panoz DP-01-Cosworth XFE driving for Newman/Haas/Lannigan Racing.

That race was notable for four things. It was the first standing start in Champ Car history, with all 17 cars getting away from the grid and there were no caution periods. For a road course race, it was the all-time closest finish in CART series history, as well as the closest three-car finish in series history.

Like many tracks on the IndyCar calendar, Portland has undergone a number of changes. In 1984, prior to hosting the fifth round of the CART/PPG IndyCar series, the track underwent some $800,000 worth of improvements, most noticeably to the track itself, with the addition of a chicane, known as the 'Festival Curves', toward the end of the main straight. A permanent pit lane and paved paddock area was installed for the first time on the infield. Elsewhere, Victory Boulevard was widened and concrete barriers and fencing were installed along the inside of its entire length. The final turn was also repaved and widened near the new pit entry road.

The entire front straight, Vanport's Cottonwood Street, was also repaved. The changes increased the track length to 1.967 miles (3.165 km).

By 1992, the speed of the CART race cars need to be slowed and the Festival Curves were reconfigured into a much tighter chicane and paved in concrete. The Festival Curves were again modified for the 2005 season, with the second turn widened and made faster to try and alleviate the traditional first lap pile-up.

In 2008 PIR went through a further track renovation, with a complete resurfacing with new asphalt and the reconfiguration of Turns 4 to 7. The fence on the inside of turn 6 was moved to provide a better sight-line, while Turn 7 was sharpened, to slow cars down prior to entering the
back straight. FIA-specification curbing was also installed around the track which opened in its new form on February 23, 2008, with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

Last year's race was held in September on Labor Day weekend and promoted by Green Savoree Racing Promotions.

Some trivia:
Of the current crop of drivers, only five have previously raced at Portland.
Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan: 2002 G.I. Joe's 200.
Ryan Hunter-Reay: 2005 G.I. Joe's Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland.
Graham Rahal and Sébastien Bourdais: 2007 Mazda Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland.

Driver with most wins: Micahel Andretti 3, Al Unser, Jr. 3
Team with most wins: Newman/haas Racing, 8

Track layout 1984-91:


Track layout 1992-2004:


Track layout 2005-07:


Track layout 2008 to date:


Lap record:
Will Power, September 1, 2018. 57.2143, 123.577 mph (198.877 km/h).
Team Penske
Dallara IR18-Chevrolet Indy V6
Verizon IndyCar Series


Last year's race
Will Power took Pole and a very messy start saw him pull into the lead, well ahead of Josef

Newgarden, allowing Rossi down the inside of Newgarden at Turn 1 and Ryan Hunter-Reay around the outside of him at Turn 2. However there was carnage, as Zach Veach and James Hinchcliffe, who was up on the curb, rubbed wheels at Turn 3, spinning his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports car and pushing Sebastien Bourdais off into the dirt. The Chip Ganassi pair of Ed Jones and championship leader Dixon also went off, with nowhere to go, creating a dust cloud and unsighting Graham Rahal, who joined the pile up. Marco Andretti's car was launched over Hinchcliffe’s and came to rest upside down.

Under the ensuing yellow, the AMR safety team righted his car.Dixon emerged unscathed and managed to get going under his own power, pitting to have his car checked over by race engineer Chris Simmons. The car was topped off with fuel and blacks put on and was given the all-clear to continue, though he was minus his communication aerial. He was down to 20th. Bourdais was also able to pit and stay on the lead lap, though now 21st.

Power led the field at the restart, chased by Rossi, Hunter-Reay, Newgarden, Veach, Jack Harvey, for Meyer Shank Racing, the two Ed Carpenter cars of Jordan King and Spencer Pigot, Max Chilton and Carlos Munoz, who was subbing for the injured Robert Wickens in the second Schmidt Peterson entry.

The race restarted on Lap 8, this time without incident but exiting Turn 7, Power abruptly slowed apparently with a gearbox issue. Roger Penske reported the car couldn’t use first gear and Power fell to 12th, though on the following lap, he got around the outside of Tony Kanaan at Turn 10 and moved into 11th.

Rossi pitted at the end of Lap 28, having held a 5.5 second lead over Hunter-Reay, rejoining in eighth, while Power now had a clear track ahead and started setting faster times. Teammate Newgarden stopped at the end of Lap 29 and emerged temporarily behind Dixon, Veach and King, who pitted at the end of Lap 31.

Hunter-Reay stopped at the end of Lap 33 and rejoined in fourth, with his first set of reds. Power was now back in the lead and set fastest lap before pitting at the end of Lap 37 for primary tires and rejoining in 12th. However on Lap 44, Power slid wide through Turn 11, going into the tires at Turn 12, rejoining a lap down and bringing out the the second full-course
yellow, as his car was extracted from the tyres. He then made a lengthy pitstop, falling eight laps down, with his title hopes over. Dixon, another championship hopeful, was given for a drive-thru penalty, for a pit speeding violation.

Up until the caustion, Rossi was leading by 7.4 seconds when Newgarden passed Hunter-Reay for second. Two laps after the restart, Newgarden dived down the inside of Rossi, to claim the lead at Turn 1. Behind him, King passed Hunter-Reay for third and was quicklyly on the tail of Rossi.

The third full-course yellow flew, when Veach clipped the curb and spun out of sixth place at Turn 11 on Lap 56. Most of the leaders took the opportunity to pit but Hunter-Reay stayed out and took the lead ahead of Sato, Bourdais, Dixon, Pigot, Pagenaud, Munoz, Dale Coyne pair Santino Ferrucci, Pietro Fittipaldi and Charlie Kimball. Newgarden, Rossi and King all pitted reds, emerging 16th through 18th.

Following the Lap 60 restart, Newgarden and Alfonso Celis Jr, made contact at Turn 1 launching Newgarden over the chicane and allowing Rossi to edge closer. A brave move from Newgarden on Harvey at Turn 7, was followed by a daring pass on Harvey by Rossi, along the back straight, with the pair now running 13th and 14th respectively. When Chilton passed Munoz, he lost enough momentum to allow Newgarden into 12th, with Rossi passing Munoz for 13th down the front straight.

Hunter-Reay made his final stop on Lap 71, taking on fresh reds and giving Sato a 2.2 seconds lead over Bourdais, who was being followed closely by Dixon and Pigot, with Pagenaud another 2.7 seconds down. Dixon stopped at the end of Lap 73, while the rest of the leaders followed suit, when Ferrucci’s car came to a halt just off the track on Lap 77, bringing out the fourth Yellow.

Chilton hadn't pitted with the others and at the green, led Sato, Hunter-Reay, Bourdais, Dixon, Pigot, Pagenaud, Kimball and Fittipaldi. Newgarden and Rossi were 10th and 11th.

The Lap 81 restart was waved off, as Chilton went too early but the second time around the restart was orderly. Pigot got the better of Dixon at Turn 7, passing him along the back straight. Dixon’s championship hopes took a further knock at the start of the next lap, as Rossi passed Newgarden into Turn 1 to claim ninth place.

Chilton gave up the lead to make his final stop at the end of Lap 85 and Rossi got past Fittipaldi to claim eighth. He was now had only 2 seconds behind but had Pagenaud and Kimball, between himself and points leader Dixon.

The battle for the lead continued between Sato and Hunter-Reay, who were now running 1 sec apart but they gradually pulled away from Bourdais in third.

With three laps to go, Hunter-Reay started reeling in Sato, as they started the final lap half a second apart but without Sato making an error there was no chance for the Andretti driver, and he passed the checkered flag 0.6084sec behind. It was only the third IndyCar win of Sato’s career after the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in 2013 and the 2017 Indy 500.

Bourdais was a further 1.2 seconds down in third and 2.7 ahead of fourth-placed Pigot, with Dixon in fifth place, still top of the driver's championship table. The other championship contender, Rossi finished eighth, behind Pagenaud and Kimball.

The unofficial points are now Dixon on 598, Rossi on 569, and the Penske pair Power and Newgarden all but out of it in joint third on 511 points.

Last year's Pole
Will Power, 57.3467. 123.292 mph (198.419 km/h)
Team Penske
Dallara IR18-Chevrolet Indy V6

Last year's winner.
Takumo Sato
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Dallara IR18-Honda HI18TT V6 Indy

Laps: 105
Distance: 206.22 miles (331.878 Kms)
Race Time: 1:45:42
Speed: 102.971 mph (165.715 Km/h)

Cautions 4
Laps 18
0, lap 0.

TV Broadcast:
NBC. Sept 1, 3:00PM