[ This article originally appeared on sportsoregon.org ]
As a much-anticipated bookend to an eventful summer of racing at Portland International Raceway, the Grand Prix of Portland makes its return to the venerable track the weekend of Sept. 2-4.
The action-packed weekend will feature nine total races and five different racing series, including the marquee NTT INDYCAR SERIES race on Sunday. Friday’s slate features USF2000 and Indy Pro 2000 races, and Indy Lights and ARCA Menards Series West practice sessions. NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice and qualifying takes place on Saturday, a day that also includes a USF2000 race at 10:15 a.m., an Indy Pro race at 2:20 p.m., Indy Lights practice and qualifying and the ARCA Menards Series West Race at 5:30 p.m. Sunday features an Indy Lights race at 10:20 a.m., followed by the NTT INDYCAR Series Grand Prix of Portland at 12:30 p.m.
As a special kickoff to this year’s Grand Prix of Portland, Sport Oregon is teaming up with PNC Bank to present a panel event on Thursday, Sept. 1. The event – An Evening with Women in Motorsports Powered by PNC – includes an engaging panel discussion with five prominent female leaders in motorsports. The panel includes SJ Luedtke, the vice president of marketing for INDYCAR; two members of the Chip Ganassi Racing team, Angela Ashmore and Anna Chatten; engineer Claire Binci and 14-time road racing champion and team owner, Cindi Lux. The event will be held from 6-9 p.m. at the Alpha Media Live Studio at 1210 SW 6th Ave. in Portland.
Earlier this year, PNC, which also sponsors INDYCAR driver Scott Dixon and his No. 9 PNC Bank Honda, teamed up with Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) to launch a new gender-equality initiative – Women in Motorsports Powered by PNC – to create awareness and hands-on experiences to educate, advocate and advance career path opportunities for women in traditionally male-dominated careers, such as motorsports.
“PNC Bank is committed to creating more opportunities for women innovators, entrepreneurs and business leaders,” said J.T. Hutchinson, PNC regional president of Portland. “Our Main Street Bank model allows us to be intentional in how we impact the communities where we live and work, and this program is a great example of how we are doing just that.”
The program provides a three-month paid internship at Chip Ganassi Racing to five college women in roles ranging from mechanic and athletic training to engineering and IT. The program also launched a video content series showcasing women leaders in the industry that CGR already employs, including engineers, mechanics and drivers. The inaugural class of student workers is nearing completion of the first group of internships provided by the program, with applications for the second class opening this fall.
Women in Motorsports has received great interest and overall engagement thus far in conjunction with other NTT INDYCAR SERIES races throughout the country, and Portland PNC officials are excited for the opportunity to showcase the new initiative on the local level in conjunction with this year’s Grand Prix of Portland.
“The response has been overwhelming and this is our contribution to that overall effort of promoting our new Women in Motorsports initiative,” said Brian Stewart, PNC’s director of client and community relations. “We’re lucky to be able to partner with Sport Oregon on the event, and it promises to be a fantastic panel discussion.”
From a Sport Oregon perspective, the Women in Motorsports initiative is a natural extension of the organization’s SHE FLIES initiative. Through SHE FLIES, Sport Oregon strives to empower girls and women through sport to overcome barriers and challenges, ultimately to unleash their full potential.
Those goals are very much in line with that of Lux, a featured panel participant and lifelong native of the Pacific Northwest. Growing up around the sport, she knows first-hand the barriers women wanting to enter the field can often face. But she’s quick to point out that, especially with how much more sophisticated and involved the industry is, the opportunities do exist but that there’s no substitute for hard work and persistence to succeed, especially in such a competitive field.
“Any position available on a race team is open to a female,” said Lux, whose Lux Performance Group is based in Aloha, Ore. “There are so many other avenues besides just the driver on professional teams these days. That’s kind of what the journey is, to really open up these doors.”
Through her vast experience, she can list off a dozen or so different areas of expertise available to women within the sport just off the top of her head, including team executive positions, truck drivers, engineers, mechanics, accountants, marketing and public relations, social media and the many functions of the sport’s expansive hospitality programs, to name a few.
Lux enthusiastically embraces her role as a leading voice for women in the sport, especially her upcoming participation in the Women in Motorsports panel discussion in her hometown where she hopes to make connections that continue well after the event.
“Being involved with this event is really important to me,” she said. “If there’s a handful of people from the Portland area that I can be a local resource for, that’s great. Basically, if you want to talk further, give me a call.”
It’s a great time to be involved with motorsports in general, but particularly so here in Portland and at Portland International Raceway. After several years without top-level events, the track once again is rumbling with premier races as it did in its previous glory years. This summer marked the return of a NASCAR series event to PIR for the first time in more than two decades, and with the NTT INDYCAR SERIES returning in 2018 after an extended absence of its own, Northwest racing fans are being treated to a host of high-level racing action once again.
“For a city-owned facility like PIR to have two top-tier racing events on each end of the summer is a huge win for the entire city,” said Sport Oregon CEO Jim Etzel, who credits Green Savoree Racing Promotions for its vision and partnership in making the two race weekends such a success. “Premier motorsports events are back as they should be in Portland, and that’s been huge for fans of the sport in the Pacific Northwest.”
For those who can’t make this year’s Grand Prix of Portland, the race will be televised live on NBC, including locally on KGW, with race coverage beginning at 12 noon.
Aloha, Oregon, April 12, 2022 | Lux Performance Group has been gone from the National Trans Am by Pirelli championship since 2019 but that is all about to change. Two years racing around the West Coast is enough and Cindi Lux is ready to be back on the road. Competitors and fans of the 14-time road racing champion have been warned: Lux Performance Group is packing the overnight bag for a seven race national tour. The Aloha, Oregon driver will bring the No. 45 Black Rock Coffee Bar/Lux Performance Group Dodge Viper ACR-X "Coffee Machine" back onto the main stage in the SGT class with a second V10 American classic, the No. 35 Dodge Viper ACR-X, also fielded by Lux Performance Group for longtime client Dirk Leuenberger (Redmond, Washington).
The fans will see the team start out the season with back-to-back races in California. They will compete at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca (April 22 – 24), Sonoma Raceway (April 30 – May 1), the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (June 23 – 26), Road America (July 1 – 3), Watkins Glen International (September 7 – 11), VIRginia International Raceway (October 6 – 9) and the season-closing round at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), November 4 – 6.
The Fred and Cindi Lux-owned operation has been off the national stage since 2019. Covid restrictions kept the Aloha, Oregon-based preparation shop from racing in 2020. In 2021, the veteran Viper program raced four times in the Trans Am West Coast Championship Presented by Pirelli with the two team cars capturing four pole positions, four wins, two second-places, one third-place finish, seven podiums and two track records.
Think the team is a bunch of homers with provincial dominance? Think again. Since joining Trans Am in 2015, Lux Performance has won over 50 percent of the 30 races it has entered, racked-up 13 pole positions and six track records. Cindi Lux earned the TA3 Northern Cup SGT Championship in 2018.
With a 28-year pedigree of winning, Lux Performance Group will not only field the pair of Vipers in the SGT class, but the program will also oversee multiple SVRA entries as well. Beyond the car prep of some of the world’s most storied historic race cars, Cindi Lux brings her no-BS coaching style to maximize client performance behind the wheel of those vintage machines.
Like Lux, longtime marketing partner Black Rock Coffee Bar continues to break into new markets around the country. The 12-year Black Rock-Lux partnership will again spread the “Fuel Your Story” philosophy into its second decade of collaboration and growth with motorsport as its message machine.
Live coverage of every Trans Am race will be streamed to https://www.youtube.com/TheTransAmSeries/live. Tape delay broadcasts will be found on CBS Sports.
Fred Lux, Principal/Head Creative Engineer, Lux Performance Group | "As we all know, Laguna Seca is Spanish for ‘Dry Lagoon’ and hopefully it will be refilled this race weekend with the tears of our competitors. Cindi has been training hard with her personal corkscrew… often two or three times daily."
Cindi Lux, Driver, No. 45 Lux Performance Group Dodge Viper ACR-X Coffee Machine | "We gave everyone two years to race without us breathing down their necks. We have the oldest cars in our class and probably one of the few that still have a manual transmission. No paddle shifting for us. Old school, baby. However, that’s what I love about them. We just work hard to squeeze more speed out of them every year."
