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. It is just west of a light rail station and less than a mile west of Interstate 5.
The track hosts annual races on the Xfinity Series and ARCA Menards Series West schedules. The Craftsman Truck Series also raced at the track from 1999 to 2000.
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).
The City of Portland is working to establish the track as carbon neutral.[1]
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]
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.