| USA - UNITED STATES | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PORTLAND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description | At the end of Second Worls War Portland Jaycees, a local newspaper, proposed to build a street circuit at Vanport, a town abandoned after a flood in 1948. The land was sold in 1960 to City of Portland by Army Corps and in June 1961 the circuit hosted it first race, Rose Cup. In the following years it was used for kart, motorbike and Dragster races, the latter of course on the long start/finish straight. First international race, a Trans Am race, was held in 1972. In 1978 it hosted its first IMSA race and in 1984 its first Cart (now Champ Car) race, since then always on schedule. As rarely happens in USA, now the owner of thre track is still the city of Portland, that operate through an Entreprise Found. The trak has 12 bends, many of them are in quick succession and driver consider them as a single long bend. In 1980s a chican was added approx at 2/3 of the main straight. In 1992 this chicane was changed into Festival Loop, a chicane much slower and narrower than the old one. The latter recently has been repaved in concrete, so drivers has many problems there. Champ Car encreases its requirements and this area has a low receptivity and for this reason the circuit could lose the race. For this reasonin April 2007 somebody proposed to build a new circuit near Portland. Nevertheless Mayor of Portland told that in this moment no funds are available for build a new circuit, so the only possibility would be to move the race on a new street circuit to be built at Portland Portland International Raceway shuldn’t be confused with Portland Speedway | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Vanport, Portland OR - Oregon - Western States | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Vanport, Southern suburb of Portland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Latitude - Longitude | + 45°35'48" -122°41'42" 45.596667 -122.695 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| UTM Coordinates | X = 523787.862 - Y = 5049281.253 - Zone 10T | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aerial photo / Map (*) |  OpenStreetMap - Google Maps - Bing Maps - Flash Earth - Wikimapia - Microsoft Research Maps - MapQuest | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Altitude AMSL | 2 m - 7 ft | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Inauguration | 1961 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Closing | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Designer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sources and links (Translation) (**) |
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| Portland International Raceway | |||||
| Description | Chicane was added in 1980s | ||||
| Years | 1961÷1991 | ||||
| Direction |  Clockwise | ||||
 Proposal |
NO | ||||
| No longer operational | YES | ||||
| Car Circuit | YES | ||||
| Motorbike circuit | YES | ||||
| Type | Permanent | ||||
| Inauguration | 1961 | ||||
| Closing | 1991 | ||||
| Last update of this page | August 7th 2002 | ||||
| Info last update | |||||
| Designer | |||||
| Distinctive points | |||||
| length | 3093 m | 10148 ft | 1.922 mi | With chicane | (1) |
| length | 3082 m | 10111 ft | 1.915 mi | Without chicane | (7) |
| with Festival loop | |||||
With chicane | |||||
| Description | From 1992 to 1996 official (wrong) length was 3138 m - 1.950 mi. In 1997, after a remeasuring, new official length was published, 3165 m - 1.967 mi, even if the track was unchanged | ||||
| Years | 1992÷2007 | ||||
| Direction | Clockwise | ||||
| Proposal |
NO | ||||
| No longer operational | YES | ||||
| Car Circuit | YES | ||||
| Motorbike circuit | |||||
| Type | Permanent | ||||
| Inauguration | 1992 | ||||
| Closing | 2007 | ||||
| Last update of this page | January 9th 2010 | ||||
| Info last update | |||||
| Designer | |||||
| Distinctive points | |||||
| length | 3138 m | 10296 ft | 1.95 mi | Official track length until 1996 (in 1997 measuring system was changed) | (7) |
| length | 3165 m | 10385 ft | 1.967 mi | Official track length from 1997, when measuring system was modified (track unchanged) | (7) |
| with Festival loop | |||||
With chicane | |||||
| Description | For 2008 Portland International Raceway was given an update. Turn 6 was moved inwards slightly, not more than the track width, and widened. Turn 7 was turned into a hairpin. There’s a patch of asfalt on the inside of turn 7 which may be available as a temporary chicane. It could be an unfinished acces road though. All information above provided by google earth only. | ||||
| Years | 2008÷... | ||||
| Direction | Clockwise | ||||
| Proposal |
NO | ||||
| No longer operational | |||||
| Car Circuit | YES | ||||
| Motorbike circuit | |||||
| Type | Permanent | ||||
| Inauguration | 2008 | ||||
| Closing | |||||
| Last update of this page | January 9th 2010 | ||||
| Info last update | |||||
| Designer | |||||
| Distinctive points | |||||
Portland International Raceway without Festival Loop
Portland International Raceway with Festival Loop
| Updates | |||||||
| Date | Track layout | Years | Description by | Map by | Thanks to | Note | |
| January 9th 2010 | with Festival loop | 2008÷... | Quintin03 | Quintin03 | Update | Description | |
| April 25th 2007 | Lorenzo Tommasi | Update | Description | ||||
| June 29th 2006 | Lorenzo Tommasi | Lorenzo Tommasi | Update | Description with map | |||
| August 7th 2002 | Guido de Carli | New | Description | ||||
| Not all eventual updates issued in last years are already visible in this list | |||||||
