Race cars run where a city of 40,000 people once stood. Portland International Raceway at 1940 North Victory Boulevard occupies the site of Vanport, Oregon - the wartime housing city built in ten months for Kaiser shipyard workers, once the second-largest city in the state, destroyed in half an hour on Memorial Day 1948 when a railroad berm failed and the Columbia River poured through. When Portland bought the 640 low-lying acres from the Army Corps of Engineers in 1960 for 175,000 dollars, all that remained were paved streets and building foundations. The Portland Jaycees saw a road course in the abandoned grid, and in June 1961 the first Rose Cup races ran on the old city streets as part of the Portland Rose Festival, won two years running by Indy driver Jerry Grant in a Ferrari Testa Rossa. Racing on street remnants - with leftover foundations and ponds waiting off-line - grew too dangerous for sanctioning bodies, so in 1971 the city built a permanent 1.915-mile, nine-turn circuit with a drag strip, opened with Rose Festival drag races and the Rose Cup. The track, part of the Delta Park complex, remains city-owned with a capacity around 30,000. CART IndyCar arrived in June 1984, with Al Unser Jr. winning the first Grand Prix of Portland; the 1986 edition produced the closest finish in Indy-car history when Mario Andretti beat his fuel-starved son Michael by 0.070 seconds. After a 2008-2017 hiatus the IndyCar Series returned in 2018, joining a calendar that has included NASCAR Xfinity, Formula E's Portland ePrix, Trans-Am and AMA Superbike rounds. A 2008 renovation repaved the full circuit and reworked several corners; the facility runs year-round with club racing, drag nights, motocross, cycling and running events on one of the busiest municipal motorsport properties in the country. The Vanport story is kept deliberately visible - the Delta Park/Vanport light-rail station borders the track, and the raceway directs visitors to the Vanport Mosaic oral-history project documenting the flood and the displaced community.

Type: Outdoors

Address: 1940 N Victory Blvd., Portland, OR, United States, 97217

Website: https://portlandraceway.com

Capacity: 30000

Opening Date: 01/06/1961

Outdoor Area