The Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA® Super Tour (HST) makes its second visit of the year to the West Coast on May 11-12, 2024, for an event hosted by SCCA’s Oregon Region at Portland International Raceway (PIR) in the green and lush Pacific Northwest.
Seventh on HST’s 10-event schedule for the 2024 season, PIR is a stone’s throw from downtown Portland and sits right along the border of Oregon and Washington, just a tick south of the Columbia River. Interestingly, the facility was developed around the remains of a housing community that was destroyed in 1948 by a disastrous flood.
Back then, the local Portland Jaycees believed there was potential in the abandoned roads left behind and created a road course that, in 1960, held its first race. The venue today hosts major IndyCar and NASCAR events, and has served as the backdrop for movies and television shows.
Spectators are invited to enjoy SCCA Road Racing action in person at PIR, and admission is free all weekend. If you can’t be trackside, though, the next best thing is catching the wheel-to-wheel racing excitement online thanks to HST’s live broadcast produced by DriversEye Live and anchored by announcers Brian Bielanski and Gregg Ginsberg.
Live online coverage will be streamed via the SCCA Official YouTube channel and SCCA Inc. Facebook page. Subscribe to SCCA’s YouTube channel to receive a heads-up before live broadcasts begin.
Sunday victory podium celebrations can also be viewed at the SCCA Road Racing Facebook page. And as always, live Timing & Scoring can be found throughout the race weekend at www.scca.com/live.
Portland Contestants
The 12-turn, 1.977-mile circuit at PIR will be the course used again during this year’s HST visit. That layout includes the Shelton Chicane – consisting of Turns 1, 2, and 3 – a challenging combination of corners where races are often won or lost.
Already aboard is a healthy Spec Racer® Ford Gen3 (SRF3) field making up the fourth run group. This crew always puts on a show, with young men such as Caleb Shrader, Calvin Harris, and Taylor Harris often battling at the front. It was wily veteran Todd Harris, however, who won the last SRF3 HST contest at PIR – maybe those tables are about to turn.
It’s also wise to keep an eye on Shrader in the Formula Enterprises®2 (FE2) class that makes up a portion of the first race group. Schrader has won the last three HST races at PIR in FE2, which obviously makes him a favorite in that field.
The Spec MX-5 (SMX) class will be part of run group three, and this will be their first HST races at PIR as an SCCA National Championship Runoffs®-eligible class. SMX drivers were at PIR last year during HST’s visit, but that competition was conducted as part of Mazda’s former Spec MX-5 Challenge series. This year, SMX drivers at PIR will be fighting for finishes that enhance their 2024 Hoosier Super Tour Point Standings tally.
Formula Vee® (FV), part of the sixth and final run group, is another class to watch during HST’s PIR stop. The last Formula Vee HST race at PIR was decided by only 0.097sec, with Quinn Posner edging out Marjorie Lundberg. In fact, the last three FV races at PIR conducted during HST weekends saw Posner and Lundberg delivering a one-two finish, so it’s right to think that Lundberg will be looking to swap that order this go-round.
There’s still time for drivers to register for this party in a park, and racing is always more fun with more competitors. Check out the Hoosier Super Tour event page for more information, then click below to discover who you’ll be racing next to.
Playtimes for Portland
The HST weekend schedule at PIR gets rolling at 9 a.m. Pacific Time on Saturday, May 11, with 20-minute qualifying sessions for each of the six run groups. Following a lunch break, the groups head back on track starting at 12:25 p.m. for 25-minute contests to decide day-one winners across as many as 28 car classes.
A second round of qualifying begins Sunday, May 12, at 9 a.m. local time with 15-minute sessions for all drivers. That will be followed by 35-minute or 25-lap races, with the first race scheduled to begin at 11:55 a.m. after a lunch break.
The full PIR schedule for the weekend can be reviewed by clicking the button below.
Photo by Doug Berger
