Round 14: Bitnile.Com Grand Prix of Portland, Portland International Raceway, Aug 25.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 14: Bitnile.Com Grand Prix of Portland, Portland International Raceway, Aug 23-25

This will be the 6th running of the Grand Prix of Portland since the race returned to AOWR in 2018, having previously been part of the CART/Champ Car calendar 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 synonimous with new title sponsors Budweiser and G.I. Joe's sporting goods and auto parts store, with the race itself becomimg 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 idriving a Panoz DP-01-Cosworth XFE for Newman/Haas/Lannigan Racing.

The race was notable for two things. One, it was the first standing start in Champ Car history, with all 17 cars getting away from the grid and two, 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. In 2022, 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 a 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



Current layout



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/2023/09...land-nics-race

Pole
Graham Rahal,
RLL Racing,
Dallara IR18-Honda HI23TT V6

Winner
Alex Palou,
Chip Ganassi Racing,
Dallara IR18-Honda HI23TT V6

Laps: 110
Distance: 216.04 Miles (347.683 Km)
Race Time: 1:57:01.9814.
Speed: 110.758 Mph (178.247 Km/h)

Fastest lap
Josef Newgarden - Team Penske,
Lap 16, 59.5874 sec.,
119.067 Mph (191.619 Km/h)

Cautions: 2
Lap: 6

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Practice and Qualifications

Practice 1
Friday, Aug 23
5:55 PM - 7:10 PM ET

Practice 2
Saturday, Sep 24
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET

Qualifications - Round 1 Group 1
Saturday, Aug 24
3:30 PM - 3:40 PM ET

Qualifications - Round 1 Group 2
Saturday, Aug 24
3:55 PM - 4:05 PM ET

Qualifications - Round 2
Saturday, Aug 24
4:20 PM - 4:30 PM ET

Qualifications - Firestone Fast 6
Saturday, Aug 24
4:45 PM - 5:00 PM ET

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TV broadcast
Sunday; Aug 25
USA, Peacock, 3:00 PM ET, 7:00 PM UTC
Sky Sport F1: 8:00 PM BST

[fieldodreams79]

Great track. Terrible sponsor name. Hope to get to watch this one live.

[NaBUru38]

Hopefully Portland is more entertaining than the previous road races.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Grid penalties for Graham Rahal, Kyle Kirkwood and David Malukas.


https://racer.com/2024/08/23/indycar...s-at-portland/

[joeb]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Great track. Terrible sponsor name. Hope to get to watch this one live.

Why do you have to put the dot com part??? No clue what bitnile is but if I wanted to know id search online. No need for this name.

[joeb]

Ferucci on pole for Foyt!!!

all the RLL cars were surprisingly strong today with Vips leading all rookies.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying Result

Congrats to Santino Ferrucci on his first IndyCar pole. This is the first time he has qualified in the Firestone Fast 6. It is also A. J. Foyt Racing's first pole since 2014, when Takuma Sato got pole in June 2014 for the second race of the double header at Belle Isle in the Detroit Grand Prix.

Reigning champion Alex Palou is 3rd.

Two Chevrolet powered cars are on the front row, the rest of the Firestone Fast 6 are Honda powered.

[chunterer]

What's up with the Mclaren lot?

Shocking for Pato and Rossi's only a few spits better off?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Scotty Mac will start in 20th place and Kyffin Simpson goes to the back of the grid, as both get six place grid penalties.

https://racer.com/2024/08/24/mclaugh...s-at-portland/

[joeb]

Originally Posted by chunterer

What's up with the Mclaren lot?

Shocking for Pato and Rossi's only a few spits better off?

It was surprising to see all 3 cars in the 2nd half of the field.

Portland has seen Turn 1 carnage a couple of times so anything can happen and they might not be out of it.

[bjohnsonsmith]

A clean start as Will Power takes the lead but there's an FCY, as Fittipaldi pushes Dixon off the track and into the Armco

[joeb]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

A clean start as Will Power takes the lead but there's an FCY as Fittipaldi pushes Dixon off the track and into the Armco

Was not expecting that to be the lap one incident. What was fitti doing? It looked like he just came straight across into Dixon.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by joeb

Was not expecting that to be the lap one incident. What was fitti doing? It looked like he just came straight across into Dixon.

Pis poor car placement, he was a passenger trying to ride the curb with the fronts in the air

[broadrun96]

Dixie trying to blame Kirkwood instead of Fittapaldi, went too deep and messed up Dixie's line so he was in position to be hit later. That's a stretch sir

[broadrun96]

Fittapaldi trying to get a second penalty isn't he, and he cut the corner. Agree that's a double no no with the NBC guys

[bjohnsonsmith]

Fittipaldii now tangles with Conor Daly.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Fittapaldi trying to get a second penalty isn't he, and he cut the corner. Agree that's a double no no

Crazy that it is his best qualifying and he is throwing it away

[joeb]

1/3 race distance and Stingy is up to 11th. strategy working.

[broadrun96]

First round of stops and Foyt crew looking a bit weak

Herta ain't that bright at times is he, gotta know you can't make that move work on Romain as the track narrows AND the corner


I got it, Herta practicing for FIA excuse me, pardon me that's my track FIA style racing. Under review?? No action is 10000000% Indy racing, this isn't bs FIA racing

[joeb]

Grosjean bumps Herta off, looks like he had no idea he was there.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

First round of stops and Foyt crew looking a bit weak

Herta ain't that bright at times is he, gotta know you can't make that move work on Romain as the track narrows AND the corner

No penalty called, but with the increased scrutiny of race control this year i'm wondering how that is no penalty but the Fitti on Dixon is?

[broadrun96]

The damage, it appears without a wreck Indy RC is less likely to issue a penalty. Spins are a bit of a maybe we will call it but wrecking someone seems to be the only penalty call

[bjohnsonsmith]

Some good wheel to wheel stuff with Toby Sowery and Kyle Kirkwood.

[broadrun96]

Kirkwood getting a bit snippy with a rookie, not a good look dude. You went in and he then went wide, you bit on a ROOKIE move?? Come on

[broadrun96]

Well that was NOT the preferred line for Siegel there on Sowery