Round 16: Bitnile.Com Grand Prix of Portland, Portland International Raceway, Sep 1-3

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 16: Bitnile.Com Grand Prix of Portland, Portland International Raceway, Sep 1-3.

This will be the 5th running of the Grand Prix of Portland, since the race returned to AOWR in 2018, after an 11 year hiatus having previously been part of the CART/Champ Car schedule from 1984-2007.

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History
Portland International Raceway is part of the Delta Park complex, on the former site of Vanport, which is 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.

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.

Since then, the race has been an important part of the Rose Festival. 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, a number of the sanctioning bodies refused to back the event, 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 monies 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. It was won by Al Unser, Jr, in a March 84C-Cosworth DFX, driving for Galles Racing.

From 1986, the event became synonymous with new title sponsors Budweiser and G.I. Joe's sporting goods and auto parts store, with the race itself becoming a perennial on the calendar, up until the last race as a Champ Car event on June 10, 2007, which was won by Sébastien Bourdais, in a Panoz DP-01-Cosworth XFE driving for Newman/Haas/Lannigan Racing. The race was notable for two 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.

In 2018 Portland was added to the IndyCar calendar. The start of the race was chaotic, as the field negotiated the chicane on the start/finish strait, resulting in a pile up that brought out the yellow flag. The start for 2019 was not much different, again with the yellow coming out, though minus the pile up. In 2020 the race was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic but was reinstated for 2021, with the start virtually a repeat of 2019. Last year, in order to prevent a pileup at the chicane, the drivers agreed to have the start further back on the main straight than previous years. As result there was no pile up and the race ran without s single yellow.

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

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Track
Like many tracks on the IndyCar calendar, Portland has undergone a number of changes over the years.

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 was to the track itself, with the addition of a chicane, known as the 'Festival Curves', toward the end of the main straight, while a permanent pit lane and paved paddock area was installed for the first time on the infield.

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 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.

West Delta Park layout 1961-65:



Original PIR Layout 1971-1983:



Layout 1984-1991:



Layout 2008 to date:



Length: 1.967 miles (3.166 km)
Turns: 12

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

Last year's race
https://www.indycar.com/news/2022/09...land-nics-race

Pole:
Scott McLaughlin,
Team Penske,
Dallara IR18-Chevrolet Indy V6

Winner:
Scott McLaughlin,
Team Penske,
Dallara IR18-Chevrolet Indy V6

Laps: 110
Distance: 216.04 Miles (347.683 Kms)
Race Time: 1:56:15.6892.
Speed: 111.493 Mph (179.431 Km/h)
Fastest lap: Josef Newgarden-Team Penske, Lap 16, 59.5874 sec., 118.656 Mph (190.958 Km/h)

Cautions: 0

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Practice and Qualifications

Practice 1 Friday, Sep 1
6:00 PM - 7:15 PM ET

Practice 2
Saturday, Sep 2
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET

Qualifications - Round 1 Group 1
Saturday, Sep 2
3:30 PM - 3:40 PM ET

Qualifications - Round 1 Group 2
Saturday, Sep 2
3:55 PM - 4:05 PM ET

Qualifications - Round 2
Saturday, Sep 2
4:20 PM - 4:30 PM ET

Qualifications - Firestone Fast 6
Saturday, Sep 2
4:45 PM - 5:00 PM ET

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TV broadcast:
Sunday; Sept 4
NBC, 3:15 PM ET, 7:15 PM UTC
Sky Sport F1: 8:00 PM BST

[joeb]

Lundgaard predicted he would be challenging for a race win at Portland, and then proceeded to lead the first practice. I think it is great to see another team pop into the picture on road courses, of course. McLaren were also strong today, but Kirkwood finished second for Andretti and Palou 3rd for Ganassi.

[joeb]

Round one group one produced some surprises, seems to be a little bit different track than what we saw in practice.

[joeb]

Josef stuffs it in the wall to bring out a red flag in Round 2

[joeb]

Palou and Dixon both make Fast 6, along with Scotty Mac, O'Ward, Herta, and Rahal

[joeb]

Pole for Rahal again!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualification Result

Back to back poles for Graham Rahal, with last year's winner Scotty Mac joining him on the front row.

Honda with 4 cars in the Fast 6.

[Adam43]

Group 1 > Group 2. Stingy 25th. Let’s see what he can do from there.

[joeb]

No surprise in the NXT race, chaos in turn 1.

[bjohnsonsmith]

A cleanish start, with a couple of cars going straight on at Turn 1.

[bjohnsonsmith]

First FCY, as Power goes off.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

First FCY, as Power goes off.

Seems as if Rahal might be fighting for a podium after the reds first strategy. He might have stayed out 1 lap too long and lost a couple of seconds to Palou.

[broadrun96]

Man, the return from pit lane merging has been rough and right in to traffic over and over. And going red first is hurting but let's see how Rahal and Scott catch back up to Palou

Kirkwood not earning a fan in RHR, that was straight up poor driving

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Man, the return from pit lane merging has been rough and right in to traffic over and over. And going red first is hurting but let's see how Rahal and Scott catch back up to Palou

Kirkwood not earning a fan in RHR, that was straight up poor driving

Kirkwood has been told for a third time to give up a place, by Race Control.

[joeb]

Such big caps with 50 laps to go, not sure how this will play out, well other than Alex Palou wins championship.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Kirkwood has been told for a third time to give up a place, by Race Control.

And yet somehow Palou does not get a blocking penalty for something just as bad

[broadrun96]

Well that's no good for Kirkwood, he just turned in to Newgarden, race control needs to call him in instead of position penalty

[joeb]

AFter 2 stops the pole sitter is 30 seconds behind. How the F did that happen?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by joeb

AFter 2 stops the pole sitter is 30 seconds behind. How the F did that happen?

They were saying on IndyCar radio, that Rahal and Scotty Mac got stuck behind Stingy.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

They were saying on IndyCar radio, that Rahal and Scotty Mac got stuck behind Stingy.

And they both got massively undercut by the rest of the red runners who pitted early. It wasn't so most Stingy as the drop off, other teams adjusted and pulled them in early regardless of the later fuel needs

[broadrun96]

RHR was NOT gonna stay behind Kirkwood at all for any reason there was he

[bjohnsonsmith]

Roseqvist gets his stop in, just before the race goes yellow, as Canapino goes off.

[broadrun96]

Armstrong had rear tire issue giving Canapino a chance in the Rookie of the Year. Then Canapino goes off and brings out a late FCY, after they let Rosenqvist pit

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Roseqvist gets his stop in, just before the race goes yellow, as Canapino goes off.

They held the FCY to let him pit, as soon as he left his box they waved it but the radio had a call of FCY coming

But not gonna be good cause 23 in reds means he'll be moving backwards

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

They held the FCY to let him pit, as soon as he left his box they waved it but the radio had a call of FCY coming

But not gonna be good cause 23 in reds means he'll be moving backwards

I know they held the FCY and apparently Dixie none too happy it about over the radio.