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Assorted ticket stubs from Portland International
Raceway's G.I. Joes 200 races, 1987-96 winners. (The Tomaso Collection)
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Once upon a time long, LONG ago,
Portland International Raceway held a yearly
IndyCar race on its premises each and every Father's Day.
With the likes of Mikey', Mario, 'lil Al
(Unser Jr.) 'Hollywood, (Danny Sullivan) "EMMO," (Emerson Fittipaldi)
'Shorty (Cristiano da Matta) Gil de Ferran and Mark Blundell taking the
chequered flag.
But since Portland was a fixture upon the
Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) way before 'lil Napoleon, aka 'TG (Tony
George) began his rival Indy Racing League, that even when the IRL tried luring
Portland into a three-year contract, the furor over Portland defecting to the
"Dark Side" was so strong, that Portland chose to remain with the
faltering Champ Car series instead!
Thus, with the mergification of the long
feuding IRL and Champ Car series, and IndyCar cherry-picking the events it
wanted from the now bankrupt Champ Car World Series, (CCWS) Portland was left
out in the cold, apparently a victim of supporting CART and Champ Car for
25-years, which wrongly IndyCar SHITTED all over its
history and instead now, its race date has gone to Milwaukee instead - or at
least it had recently...
As this year's
Father's Day marks the seventh year since any Indy Cars have raced in anger at
Portland.
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| Assorted ticket stubs from Portland International Raceway's G.I. Joes 200 races, 1994-98 winners. (The Tomaso Collection) |
While Portland
actually celebrated its Open Wheel Racing Centennial prior to some 'lil place called
the Brickyard.
And while I'm
happy for Milwaukee's resurrection, unfortunately it kind of reminds me of the
previous scrap over the Sacramento Kings potentially being relocated to
Seattle, since ideally both cities should have an NBA Franchise, just like
Portland and Milwaukee should both have IndyCar races, and thus, in case Y'all
cannot figure out my feelings over the matter then perhaps the following will
help?