Race No. 9

Budweiser/G.I. Joe's 200 Presented by Texaco/Havoline
Portland International Raceway
Portland, Oregon
June 19-21, 1998

1996 Pole Winner: Alex Zanardi 1997 Pole Winner: Scott Pruett 1996 Race Winner: Alex Zanardi 1997 Race Winner: Mark Blundell 1996 SpeedCenter Report 1997 SpeedCenter Report Portland Weather Robby Gordon's Track Preview in RealAudio

Rain, the Great Equalizer?

After Detroit, CART moves on to the first natural terrain road course of the season. Portland is rather unique inits layout with a strong emphasis on fast right hand turns, that some drivers set up their cars with a slightstagger as if the track was a right-hand turn oval. See Robby Gordon'strack notes for a map and some RealAudio comments on this and other car setup issues. Portland has beena wet place for racing in two of the last 3 years, and with this season's weather pattern, there is a good chancethat the 1998 rain tire designs will get their first shootout on raceday.

Alex Zanardi won the 1996 race at Portland and goes into the event on Sunday as points leader and favorite. Greg Moore, currently second in the points standings, is looking optimistically at the event:

"The Portland race is significant for a couple of reasons. Personally, it’s acourse I’m very familiar with as I started racing here at the beginning of mykarting career. It’s also the first road course the CART series visits as wehead into a nine race stretch of road and street courses. So if you’re quick onthese types of courses, you’re bound to have a great second half of theseason. We had a very successful test here in April. Hopefullywe’ll have a successful race as well and end up with a Forsythe victory."