# @speedyoulater on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch-FlTmNlx4
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/13202818-speedyoulater-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/0b5c284461.jpg
- **Posted:** 2022-09-01T16:03:10.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Speed You Later | INDYCAR (@speedyoulater) — https://gondola.cc/speedyoulater

## Caption

Vanport was a city of 40000 inhabitants in Oregon, built to house shipyard workers during WW2, and was protected from the Columbia river by a system of dykes. However, those dykes failed in 1948 and the city disappeared underwater…

In 1961, on the abandoned roads of Vanport, racing enthusiasts developed a racetrack, which opened in June that same year. The first race was held at the Portland Rose Festival.

In 1969 the track was shortened and repaved. The impossibility to make the track safer, however, convinced local drivers to build a permanent facility with fast and wide corners, which finally opened in 1971. The pitlane was on the outside of the last corner, and that strip of tarmac still exists today.

The first races on the reconfigured Portland Raceway were still within the Rose Festival. IMSA arrived in 1978, giving it a good status. This convinced the city of Portland to push even further, adding a chicane on the main straight and moving the pitlane on the inside in 1984. So, CART arrived and twice the race finished with less than a tenth of a second between the winner and the runner-up, providing stunning races every year on a track beloved by all drivers.

By 1992, the track was deemed too fast for CART and so the first chicane was tightened and paved in concrete. However, it was widened again in 2005 as the previous configuration hosted too many crashes. 

In 2008 Portland obtained the current layout after a full overhaul that implied the redesign of turn 7, sharpened to slow down the cars before the faster section of the circuit. Also, renovations complied with FIA specifications.
Sadly, the unification of ChampCar and IndyCar and the departure of the ALMS left the circuit without a headline event. 

It went on to host bicycle races and launched a popular winter event while struggling to find motorsport events. That was until 2018 when Indycar unexpectedly returned to Oregon. Four years later, NASCAR made its way to Portland, the track born from a flood!
 
Written by: _kubernetes 
Graphics by: catemasettizannini 

#speedyoulater #indycar #nttindycarseries #indydrivers #portland #indycarportland #raceweek #race #nascar #speedway #speed

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## Tags

speedway, indycarportland, speed, indycar, portland, speedyoulater, nascar, nttindycarseries, indydrivers, race, raceweek

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