PIR

1988 GI Joes's 200 Cart, Portland International Raceway, Portland, Oregon

In June 1988, I moved to Portland for about 6 months, they claimed that summer was the driest in years. But the whole month of November, it drizzled almost constantly EVERY day (or so it seems in my memory...). Bit I digress... The very day I got into town, I found PIR. And it was a Friday, the CART folks were in town and all I had was a roll of film and my 80-200 zoom. Damn. The pics are darker than I meant them to be. I'll try to fix them. But there were some interesting things to shoot BEFORE I ran out of film...

This Nissan Stanza Wagon (four wheel drive no less and knobbies) was spotted crossing the track. Hmmm, I wonder who it might have been and who he was visiting? Could it have been Roger Mears himself? No, it was some lady driving the car. But I did later see the Mears together. Very cool.

Some of the Indy/CART/PPG pace cars. These cars are special cars used by the PPG and CART officials for driving press and other VIP types around the track. All are modified, some more than others. A Cadillac? Of course, a Buick Regal Grand National... A Mustang SVO (I'd take one)... And a Corvette, followed by a Camaro. These all sounded SWEET!!!
And then there are the more modified examples, yes, that is a Mustang. It sounded, well, like a race car...

Since I'm a bit of a Mopar FWD nut these days, I couldn't believe I had this photo. I don't even remember seeing this car (but then, I wasn't thinking like that then...). Of course, I do like the custom roll bar. I just wish I could remember this car or even its sound. It was supposed to have a radical motor for the day. Anyone want to fill me in on this car?

who drove the BUD car in '88? I don't remember...

And on the right, a Buick V6 Indy Lights car...

I'm not a 'Vette fan, But thought these cars were really nice to watch. And seeing them in the pits was pretty cool too...

Naturally, other sorts of cars run theses race weekends, the CART cars are just the headliners... Thrashing in the pits is what gets you back on the track... And these guys were certainly up to the challenge...

During the course of my time in Portland, I made a couple trips to the track with my motorcycle and some friends. I DO NOT CONDONE MY ACTIONS, THEY WERE WRONG!!! But, we did venture out on the track when the chains were down for personal hot laps on MORE than one occasion. We would have been in BIG trouble had we been caught or had an accident. Like my friend I watched while I was cornering hard into three (or was it four), I glimpsed him in my mirror as he shunted off into the grass... I slowed and went back. He was fine, he went into turn one WAY too fast, got up into the "marbles" and decided to hit the grass... Kept it upright, and we finished that lap (our third) and went home... We did go back to watch the Motocross guys in the infield a few times, and did some personal dragracing on the front straight (which really is a drag striip), but our thrills were over. I still don't want to think of the trouble we could have had if my friend had been hurt...