Portland Dragway??
- Thread starter Toejam
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Tim5636sc
Nitro Member
Saw the feature on them yesterday, I'm shocked anykind of racing can survive in a PC city like Portland! How long has this place been open?
For decades Joe... I used to spend my summers in Portland with my grandparents on my dad's side and my Grandpa Don and Uncle Terry used to take me out there all the time. The track does pretty good on attendance. Their bread and butter is the road coarse, but the Drag Strip is serviceable.
Saw the feature on them yesterday, I'm shocked anykind of racing can survive in a PC city like Portland! How long has this place been open?
I might be full of it, but don't they have to burn unleaded and use mufflers?
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In a city like Portland, that wouldn't surprise me!
.
Nitro Member
You'll have to wait for Rich to chime in, he knows the situation with the PIR track better than anybody on this forum I bet. Most of the drag racing that happens there is street vehicles on Friday nights. It's nothing like it was in the 70's and 80's. Woodburn, about midway between Portland and Salem, is still the best drag strip in the area.
rocketman
Nitro Member
Yep, Portland has a dragstrip owned by the city and is considered a city park. I went to my first race there in 1975 called the Oregon Open. Back then Bill Doner had the lease as he did with other tracks on the west coast. The races there from 1973 to 1983 rivaled anything on the west coast other than NHRA National events and 64 funny cars in Seattle and at OCIR but we got the same players.
Then in the early 80's a %$%ing lawyer moved into the area and made a big deal about the noise, and to make things worse the city brought in an Indy car race at the peak of CART's popularity. The lawyer tried to stop the indy car race but a court injunction allowed it to go on. One thing the city did do is make a deal with the neighbors that any non-muffled drag racing activity would be banned and that was the end of drag racing with any significants. Since then, my friend Jim Rockstad brokered a deal to bring in an IHRA nationals event to town but the city wasn't interested.
Now in 2010 the track has no major events of any kind but it does have an NHRA national open which they got a noise variance of up to 115 db. The of the race advertised big time drag racing comes back to PIR and showed images of funny cars and top alcohol dragsters in ads on TV and in the newspaper.
Sadly, two years ago we fell for the advertising, went up there and made one pass and were asked to pack up our stuff and go (but in nicer terms) the reason? we were to loud! Yet, they still ran the "big time ads even this year. I saw an ad in the local paper a month ago with a picture of Bucky Austin's funny car in the ad and it made me mad thinking that people will see that ad and go to the race only to see super comp style cars, and then based on that experience never go to another one again.
But at least when we had PIR when nitro racing was at it's peak and thank goodness we have Woodburn which is the best track on the west coast as far as I'm concerned based on there over all schedule.
Then in the early 80's a %$%ing lawyer moved into the area and made a big deal about the noise, and to make things worse the city brought in an Indy car race at the peak of CART's popularity. The lawyer tried to stop the indy car race but a court injunction allowed it to go on. One thing the city did do is make a deal with the neighbors that any non-muffled drag racing activity would be banned and that was the end of drag racing with any significants. Since then, my friend Jim Rockstad brokered a deal to bring in an IHRA nationals event to town but the city wasn't interested.
Now in 2010 the track has no major events of any kind but it does have an NHRA national open which they got a noise variance of up to 115 db. The of the race advertised big time drag racing comes back to PIR and showed images of funny cars and top alcohol dragsters in ads on TV and in the newspaper.
Sadly, two years ago we fell for the advertising, went up there and made one pass and were asked to pack up our stuff and go (but in nicer terms) the reason? we were to loud! Yet, they still ran the "big time ads even this year. I saw an ad in the local paper a month ago with a picture of Bucky Austin's funny car in the ad and it made me mad thinking that people will see that ad and go to the race only to see super comp style cars, and then based on that experience never go to another one again.
But at least when we had PIR when nitro racing was at it's peak and thank goodness we have Woodburn which is the best track on the west coast as far as I'm concerned based on there over all schedule.
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rocketman
Nitro Member
To read stories about PIR go to Cap Racing Home Page and click on thunder in the pipes link. Here is the direct link: Pipes
These stories were written by Jim Rockstad who was the promoter along with Bill Doner.
These stories were written by Jim Rockstad who was the promoter along with Bill Doner.
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