IndyCar Replaces Watkins Glen With Portland Int'l Raceway On '18 Series Schedule

Portland Int'l Raceway will "make a return" to the Verizon IndyCar Series schedule in '18 after a 10-year absence, replacing Watkins Glen Int'l on Labor Day weekend, according to David Malsher of MOTORSPORT.com. WGI was "added to the IndyCar calendar" in '16 as a "hasty replacement" for a planned street race in Boston that never happened. The Portland track "held 24 CART/Champ Car races" from '84-'07, but "fell off the calendar following the Champ Car/Indy Racing League merger." Meanwhile, Mexico City currently is not on the schedule, but it is "believed a provisional date is being held in March for IndyCar to race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez." Both the recent earthquake, and the "compressed amount of time to promote the race, are thought to be contributing factors in the deal not yet being completed" (MOTORSPORT.com, 10/12). NBCSPORTS.com's Tony DiZinno noted WGI's Labor Day date "didn’t prove a viable date for either the picturesque upstate New York road course" or IndyCar, and Portland’s addition has come on at the "relatively last-minute." Green Savoree Racing Promotions will "promote the Portland race on the 1.967-mile road course, adding this event to its other three at St. Petersburg, Toronto and Mid-Ohio." The broadcast schedule on NBCSN and ABC "will be released at a later date" (NBCSPORTS.com, 10/12). IndyCar CEO Mark Miles said that Portland city officials "sought" Labor Day weekend, and the series "liked that a race in the Pacific Northwest was a natural lead-in to the season finale in Sonoma, Calif., two weeks later." In Indianapolis, Scott Horner notes the deal with Portland "is for three years." Without Watkins Glen, the series "doesn't have a race further northeast than Pocono, in central Pennsylvania." Miles said the northeast is "the greatest need for the series" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 10/13).