The circuit: A 12-turn, 1.964-mile permanent road course on the city’s north side.
Key information: In 2020, the NTT IndyCar Series will stage its third race at Portland International Raceway, but the event’s open-wheel history stretches to 1984 when Al Unser Jr. won the first of his three CART races there. The next event will be Sept. 4-6, 2020.
Tickets on sale: Tickets go on sale Wednesday at 10 a.m. PT. Get all the information here.
Race of champions: It seems this event is usually won by one of the best drivers of the sport. The first seven to win there either were or became Indy car series champions (Unser Jr., Mario Andretti, Bobby Rahal, Danny Sullivan, Emerson Fittipaldi, Michael Andretti and Alex Zanardi). In all, 11 series champions have captured at least one race win at the track, including Gil de Ferran, Cristiano da Matta, Sebastien Bourdais and Will Power. The winner of the race went on to win that year’s season championship 10 times in 25 opportunities.
One three-time winner, but several two-timers: Michael Andretti is the only driver to have won three Indy car races at PIR – he won three in a row from 1990-92 -- but his father, Mario, is among those who have won two. The others are Fittipaldi, Unser Jr., Zanardi, de Ferran, da Matta and Bourdais.
A close finish: Mark Blundell’s 1997 victory was by only 0.027 seconds over de Ferran. That’s a big difference from the inaugural race, which Unser Jr. won by 39.61 seconds over Geoff Brabham. Watch that race here.
The track's hot spot: The front straightaway chicane is the adventurous part of any lap at this track, something Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Jack Harvey, among others, experienced in this year's race. In the 2018 race, the bunched field had trouble getting through that chicane, with Marco Andretti's car getting up in the air (see above) after multi-car contact. Notice in the photo at the bottom of this page the congestion that occurs in the starts of these races. The shot below is the start of this year's race.
Racing diversity: In addition to the NTT IndyCar Series race, the weekend’s action includes the Road to Indy, Stadium Super Trucks, Mazda Global MX-5 Cup and new for 2020, USAC .25 Midgets.
PAST WINNERS:
1984 (CART): Al Unser Jr.
1985 (CART): Mario Andretti
1986 (CART): Mario Andretti
1987 (CART): Bobby Rahal
1988 (CART): Danny Sullivan
1989 (CART): Emerson Fittipaldi
1990 (CART): Michael Andretti
1991 (CART): Michael Andretti
1992 (CART): Michael Andretti
1993 (CART): Emerson Fittipaldi
1994 (CART): Al Unser Jr.
1995 (CART): Al Unser Jr.
1996 (CART): Alex Zanardi
1997 (CART): Mark Blundell
1998 (CART): Alex Zanardi
1999 (CART): Gil de Ferran
2000 (CART): Gil de Ferran
2001 (CART): Max Papis
2002 (CART): Cristiano da Matta
2003 (CART): Adrian Fernandez
2004 (Champ Car): Sebastien Bourdais
2005 (Champ Car): Cristiano da Matta
2006 (Champ Car): A.J. Allmendinger
2007 (Champ Car): Sebastien Bourdais
2018 (INDYCAR): Takuma Sato
2019 (INDYCAR): Will Power
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