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.”
