Many think the Portland Rose Festival’s link to auto racing in Portland began in the ‘60’s with the annual Rose Cup Races. However, it was much earlier -- in 1909 - that the Rose Festival’s annual event featured the 14-1/2 mile road race through roads in east Multnomah County. Though sponsored by AAA and successful from all reports, by 1910 the Portland Automobile Club was engrossed in a "better roads" program, Multnomah County could not afford to maintain the roads for the races and auto racing throughout the country was giving way to circle track racing.

Portland International Raceway sits on part of the old Vanport site, a city built in North Portland in 1942 to house shipyard workers for the war effort. At one time, as many as 80,000 people lived in Vanport - a complete city with schools, a hospital, bank, theater and markets. Following the end of World War II, people gradually moved away, and only about 20,000 remained on Memorial Day in 1948 when the Columbia River flooded, a dike to the west of Vanport broke and the city was completely flooded. The Corps of Army Engineers cleaned up the site and sold it to the City of Portland in 1960, the only stipulation being that it was to be used for recreational purposes.

It was not until 1961 (the first Rose Cup) when a plan to use the roads at the old Vanport site, now West Delta Park, for a racing circuit was accepted, and automobile road racing was once again part of the annual Rose Festival celebration. The City of Portland made some early improvements to the old Vanport streets and added a 1/4 mile drag strip.

By 1971, the race track needed major improvements including paving and safety barriers. Bob Ames, race chairman for the Rose Festival and a racing enthusiast, was instrumental in bringing the Rose Festival Association to a major commitment by borrowing $100,000 from four local banks with a plan that paid back the loan through a percentage of track proceeds.

In September 1972, the Portland Rose Festival sponsored the first professional race. In 1973, Blitz Weinhard donated the still standing 3-story tower that includes the racetrack’s office, and a local radio station added the small timing and scoring tower near the start/finish line. The City of Portland added two new restroom/concession stand buildings.

In 1975, G. I. Joe’s was signed as the sponsor of the annual Rose Cup event, and professional racing took off with the inclusion of the SCCA Trans-Am Series. Certainly still considered the "glory days" of Rose Cup, the success of this annual event led to bigger dreams for Portland International Raceway.

In 1976, Bob Ames encouraged race enthusiast Bill Hildick to join the Rose Festival Board of Directors and step in as Race Chairman in 1977. With Hildick’s background in Indy-style racing through his employer, Norton Company, the timing was right for Portland when Championship Auto Racing Teams began considering the expansion of its series to road courses.

Hildick, Ames, Norm Daniels and Mike Nealy of Global Events Group were the four who took the dream forward to the Rose Festival, the Portland City Council, and, finally convincing CART to seriously consider Portland. The Rose Festival and the City became financial partners with the initial $865,000 loan to bring PIR "up to speed" with improvements: the pit/paddock area was re-located to the infield, Turn 9 was re-vamped and re-surfaced, the main straight was repaved, a chicane was added at the end of the front straight, guardrail, debris fencing and concrete barriers were installed, telephone, electric service, water lines and ground communication services were added, 23,000 new grandstand seats were built.

In June, 1984, the first Portland Rose Festival CART race, the "Stroh’s/G.I. Joe’s 200", was held at Portland International Raceway. The Festival had entered the big business of motorsports. Budweiser replaced Stroh’s as a major race sponsor in 1986, and fifteen years later the Festival had not only repaid the original loan plus interest, the events had added over $3.5 million in profits to support the annual Portland Rose Festival.

Freightliner signed as the new co-title sponsor of the race in February 2000, and the event became the "Freightliner/G.I. Joe's 200 presented by Texaco." Budweiser remains as the official beer.

Race fans in Portland have been able to share the victories and defeats of many of racing’s legends. Al Unser Jr. won his first CART race at Portland’s first CART race in 1984. Mario Andretti, Danny Sullivan, Emerson Fittipaldi, Bobby Rahal, Michael Andretti, Alex Zanardi, Mark Blundell and Gil deFerran have all been winners in Portland.

Past Race Winners: Portland CART Event
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
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
June 25, 2000 Gil de Ferran
June 24, 2001 Max Papis
June 16, 2002 Cristiano da Matta

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