Portland International Raceway
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| Location | Portland, Oregon, United States |
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| Time zone | GMT -7 |
| Capacity | 86,000 |
| Owner | City of Portland |
| Operator | Mark Wigginton |
| Opened | 1960 |
| Surface | Asphalt/Concrete |
| Circuit Length | 1.967 mi (3.17 km) |
| Turns | 12 |
| Lap Record | 0:57.597 (Justin Wilson, RuSPORT, 2006, Champ Car) |
Portland International Raceway (PIR) is located in Portland, Oregon's Delta Park complex on the former site of Vanport, just south of the Columbia River.
The track hosts a Champ Car race every year and ICSCC and SCCA road racing and autocross events. The facility includes a drag strip and a motocross track.
The road course is almost perfectly flat and runs clockwise. Two track configurations are possible. One includes a hard chicane at the end of the front straight and involves twelve turns at length of 1.967 miles (3.17 km). Without the chicane, the track has nine turns an a lap length of 1.915 miles (3.08 km).
It is just west of a light rail station and less than a mile west of Interstate 5.
The City of Portland is working to establish the track as carbon neutral.[1]
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[edit] History
PIR is built on the former location of Vanport, Oregon, which was destroyed on Memorial Day, May 30th, 1948, when a dike on the Columbia River broke and flooded the city. After the flood had wiped out the city of Vanport, all that remained were the paved streets and concrete foundations of the destroyed homes and buildings.
The first races took place on these old city streets in 1961 during the Portland Rose Festival. Since then, the Rose Cup has become an annual event. Racing at "West Delta Park"[2], as PIR was known back then, was quite dangerous. Racers leaving the track unexpectedly could collide with leftover concrete foundations or fall into ponds.
Under the threat of losing the Rose Cup races, since many of the sanctioning racing bodies would no longer sanction races due to the deteriorating roads and dangerous obstacles, the track was finally paved in the 1970s.[3]
Each year from 1996 through 2000 the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series ran a race at Portland International Raceway.
At the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008, PIR went through a track renovation. The track was repaved with new asphalt and some minor changes were made to the track layout. Turns 4 through 7 were widened. The fence on the inside of turn 6 was moved to provide a better sightline through the corner. And turn 7 was sharpened to slow down racers prior to entering the back straight. Formula One-style curbs were also installed on the track.[4] The track reopened on February 23rd, 2008, with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
[edit] Champ Car race history
See Main article Grand Prix of Portland
[edit] References
- ^ Raceway Seeks Carbon-Neutral Status - The Car Connection
- ^ Portland International Raceway Offical Site - History
- ^ Portland International Raceway Offical Site - History
- ^ Portland Tribune Article - Track debuts smooth moves
[edit] External links
- Portland International Raceway Official Site
- Trackpedia guide to driving this track
- Friends of PIR
- Oregon Motorcycle Road Racing Association
- Oregon Motorcycle Road Racing Association (OMMRA)
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