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Portland International Raceway

Built on the drowned streets of Vanport: a pancake-flat 1.967 mile sprint through Portland's West Delta Park, where the Festival Curves funnel the field into the lap's one heavy braking zone.

Length
3.166 km
1.967 mi
Turns
12
Direction
Clockwise
In use
2008-present

Portland International Raceway

Portland International Raceway sits in West Delta Park on the site of Vanport, the wartime city destroyed by a Columbia River flood on Memorial Day 1948. Racing began in 1961 on the abandoned street grid, and the city-owned venue became a permanent road course in 1971. The Grand Prix layout measures 1.967 mi (3.166 km) over twelve turns, runs clockwise, and is almost perfectly flat: an FIA Grade 2 circuit whose front straight doubles as a drag strip.

The Festival Curves

The circuit’s identity is its first-corner complex. The Festival Curves chicane was added at the main straight in 1984, when CART brought the Grand Prix of Portland to Delta Park, and was rebuilt as a much tighter, concrete-paved complex in 1992. It is dedicated to Vanport racing legend Monte Shelton as the Shelton Chicane. The hard right-hand entry is the heaviest braking zone on the lap and is infamous for first-lap chaos. Without the chicane, the track becomes a nine-turn, 1.915 mi (3.082 km) variant.

Flat, fast, and unforgiving

With no elevation to lean on, the lap rewards precision: the double-apex right at Turn 4, the decreasing-radius left at Turn 6 where the surface falls away, and the sharpened Turn 7 guarding the back straight were all reworked in the 2008 repave. A fast left-right flick at Turns 10 and 11 and the long right-hander of Turn 12 return the field to the front straight. CART raced here from 1984 to 2007, and IndyCar’s Grand Prix of Portland brought top-level open-wheel racing back in 2018.

Corner-by-corner

  • T1

    Festival Curves

    • Right

    A hard right-hander at the end of the long front straight, the entry to the Festival Curves chicane and the heaviest braking zone on the circuit.

    Added at the main straight in 1984 when CART's Grand Prix of Portland arrived, and rebuilt in concrete as a much tighter complex in 1992, the chicane is dedicated to Vanport racing legend Monte Shelton as the Shelton Chicane. Its funnel-shaped entry at the end of the front straight is infamous for causing chaos on opening laps.

  • T2

    Turn 2

    • Left

    The left-hand second element of the Festival Curves chicane, flicking the cars back toward the infield.

  • T3

    Turn 3

    • Right

    A right-hander completing the Festival Curves complex and releasing the cars onto the run to Turn 4.

  • T4

    Turn 4

    • Right
    • double apex

    A double-apex right-hander that opens the infield section, widened in the 2008 reconfiguration; it leads directly into Turn 5.

  • T5

    Turn 5

    • Right

    A right-hander following immediately from Turn 4; its exit sets up the entry to Turn 6.

  • T6

    Turn 6

    • Left

    A decreasing-radius left-hander with the surface falling away through the corner, widely regarded as the hardest corner on the lap to get right.

  • T7

    Turn 7

    • Right

    A right-hander leading onto the back straight, sharpened in the 2008 reconfiguration to slow the cars entering the fastest part of the lap.

  • T8

    Turn 8

    • Left

    A slight left-hand kink taken partway down the back stretch.

  • T9

    Turn 9

    • Right

    A fast right-hand bend where the back stretch begins its long, gently curving arc toward the final complex.

  • T10

    Turn 10

    • Left

    A left-hand sweep at the end of the back straight that begins the fast final complex.

  • T11

    Turn 11

    • Right

    A right-hand sweep following immediately from Turn 10, setting up the final corner.

  • T12

    Turn 12

    • Right

    A long, fast right-hander past the pit entrance that releases the cars onto the front straight.