The 2024 BITNILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland will reach multiple historic markers at Portland International Raceway (PIR), Aug. 23-25. The three-day race weekend will be the 30th professional open-wheel race between Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) from 1984-2003, then Champ Car World Series (Champ Car) from 2004-2007, and now an INDYCAR-sanctioned event at PIR. The event also marks 40 years since the inaugural Grand Prix of Portland won by Al Unser Jr. in 1984. As the 2024 race hits these significant milestones in 2024, it's the perfect time to look back at what has been a tremendous motorsport tradition in the Pacific Northwest over the past four decades.
The 80's - Legendary Domination
The Race Winners:
June 17, 1984 - Al Unser Jr.
June 16, 1985 - Mario Andretti
June 15, 1986 - Mario Andretti
June 14, 1987 - Bobby Rahal
June 19, 1988 - Danny Sullivan
June 25, 1989 - Emerson Fittipaldi
In 1984, Portland International Raceway underwent some $800,000 worth of improvements. The most noticeable change to the track configuration itself was the addition of a chicane (known as the 'Festival Curves') toward the end of the main front-straight which also serves as a drag strip. This entire straight was also repaved. These track updates along with other facility upgrades allowed major league auto racing in the form of Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) Indy car racing to be hosted at the track for the first time on the 1.915-mile circuit.
A “Who’s Who” of motorsports launched the rich history of the Grand Prix of Portland. Unser, Andretti, Rahal, Sullivan and Fittipaldi – each Indianapolis 500 champions with their faces sculpted on to the coveted Borg-Warner Trophy – were the only CART race winners at Portland International Raceway during its first decade.
The most memorable race came on Father’s Day 1986, when Mario Andretti nipped son Michael to capture the checkered flag. After holding a full lap lead, it was a gift from son Michael to dad Mario as Michael ran out of gas on the 104th and final lap due to a fuel pick-up problem leaving the last seven gallons in the car’s tank. Mario won by 0.070 of a second equal to four inches at the line.
See the video of Michael's Father's Day gift to Mario.
"I feel sorry for Michael, but after all it is Father's Day," said Mario, who had not won a race since the previous year’s Portland CART Indy car race.
"I've been blessed with a lot of great moments in my career," Mario said. "But this has to be one of the greatest because . . . blood is thicker than water. It's something that's so special because the odds of this happening are so slim. How sweet it is."
The 90's - Record Breakers
The Race Winners:
June 24, 1990 - Michael Andretti
June 23, 1991 - Michael Andretti
June 21, 1992 - Michael Andretti
June 27, 1993 - Emerson Fittipaldi
June 26, 1994 - Al Unser Jr.
June 25, 1995 - Al Unser Jr.
June 23, 1996 - Alex Zanardi
June 22, 1997 - Mark Blundell
June 21, 1998 - Alex Zanardi
June 20, 1999 - Gil de Ferran
After the Father’s Day gift to his dad Mario in 1986, karma returned good favor to Michael Andretti as the 1990s began. He went back-to-back-to-back in winning and sweeping the 1990-1992 CART races at Portland International Raceway as the only driver to accomplish that feat. Those victories tie Andretti with Al Unser Jr. (the race’s first winner and also in 1994 and 1995) for most by any driver in the event’s history at three.
Another record was accomplished on a chilly and drizzly day in June 1997 when Mark Blundell passed Gil de Ferran on the final lap of a drying track to win by 0.027 of a second. It remains the closest finish on a road or street circuit in the Indy car annals and also produced the closest 1-2-3 finish with the top three including Raul Boesel covered by just 0.055 of a second.
Watch the 1997 race and Blundell’s thrilling victory.
“I didn’t know that I’d won the race,” Blundell said. “It was quite a thrilling thing to understand it. I looked up at the leaderboard and saw our number on top. I didn’t know we’d won it.”
Of the ten race winners across six drivers in the 1990s at PIR, all of them except Mark Blundell won an Indy car series championship in their illustrious racing careers, and three of them occurred in the same season when they won at Portland.
The 2000's - Back to the Future
The Race Winners:
June 25, 2000 - Gil de Ferran
June 24, 2001 - Max Papis
June 16, 2002 - Cristiano da Matta
June 22, 2003 - Adrian Fernandez
June 20, 2004 - Sebastien Bourdais
June 19, 2005 - Cristiano da Matta
June 18, 2006 - A.J. Allmendinger
June 10, 2007 - Sebastien Bourdais
An international array of world-class drivers dominated open-wheel racing as the calendar flipped to the 21st century. The eight winners at Portland International Raceway were from five different countries - Brazil, France, Italy, Mexico and the United States.
When Indy cars returned to PIR for the Grand Prix of Portland on Labor Day weekend 2018, seven drivers will be reunited with the track in an Indy car again. Featuring a unique standing start for the series, four active drivers competed in a Champ Car World Series in the last professional open-wheel race there in 2007: Sebastien Bourdais (winner), Will Power (fourth), Simon Pagenaud (eighth) and Graham Rahal (ninth).
“I have great memories of racing at Portland International Raceway, but the best memory was that last race in 2007. It was the 100th win for Newman/Haas Racing and that was quite the achievement by the team to get that many wins. I was honored to have been a part of it and to help them get to that number,” said Bourdais. “It was definitely a special moment, especially battling against Justin Wilson for the win that weekend.
He continued, “Overall, it’s a fun track to race on, and I look forward to going back in 2018 for the first time in over 10 years. Not only is the track great, but the whole area is a nice place to visit. It’s a great city with great restaurants and food to enjoy. I can’t wait!”
Rewind to 2007 to view the last Indy car race at Portland.
Scott Dixon, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Tony Kanaan also have experience on PIR. James Hinchcliffe has also run on the track in developmental support series winning the Atlantics race at the track in 2006. Tony Kanaan will hope to carry forth his record-breaking streak for most consecutive starts which began at PIR in June 2001. He has 282 consecutive starts heading into the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season.
The 2010's - Indy 500 Stars
The Race Winners:
September 2, 2018 – Takuma Sato
September 1, 2019 – Will Power
After an eleven-year absence, Indy car racing made a momentous return in 2018 to Portland International Raceway (PIR) over Labor Day weekend. The fans turned out in mass for the Grand Prix of Portland to see the stars and cars of the Indianapolis 500 capped off with the win by Takuma Sato, the 2017 Indy 500 champion. With some great strategy from his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team, Sato moved up through the field from the lowest ever starting position at PIR (20th place) to claim victory on the 1.964-mile, 12-turn circuit.
Watch Indy cars return to PIR.
Fittingly, the prior year’s Indy 500 winner takes the Grand Prix of Portland again in 2019. Will Power crossed the finish line first to bring his racing career full circle as PIR was the site of his very first Indy car testing debut. From that initial PIR visit in 2005, he recollected, “I remember thinking I wish I could get paid to do this.”
The 2020's - Championship Clinchers
The Race Winners:
September 12, 2021 – Alex Palou
September 4, 2022 – Scott McLaughlin
September 3, 2023 – Alex Palou
The Grand Prix of Portland paused for a year in 2020 due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, but the annual race weekend resumed fully in 2021. This decade-in-progress has seen the emergence of INDYCAR’s latest star - Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou. The 27-year-old Spaniard won the 2021 and 2023 races at PIR, en route to winning the 2021 and 2023 INDYCAR season championships. Palou clinched last year’s title with his win at the newly named BITNILE.COM Grand Prix, and the Chip Ganassi Racing team celebrated accordingly.
“It was an amazing weekend overall,” Palou said. “We had really fast cars. We knew we had to go for it, and we just raced how we’ve been doing all season. Super proud to be here in victory lane and super proud of the second championship. I never thought that I would be an INDYCAR champion, and to be a two-time INDYCAR champion feels amazing, like a dream.”
Watch highlights of Alex Palou’s championship-clinching 2023 Portland win.
Scott McLaughlin, a three-time Supercars champion and Team Penske’s newest star, won the 2022 Grand Prix of Portland. McLaughlin's Penske teammate Will Power finished second en route to winning the 2022 INDYCAR season title.
BITNILE.COM became the race’s first title sponsor in 2023, and will again serve in that role for the 2024 event. In 2024, Palou looks to become the third three-time winner in Portland - joining Al Unser Jr. and Michael Andretti - as he contends for another INDYCAR season championship.
See full Grand Prix of Portland History including all race winners and records.
