Chasing Speed in the Rose City – Pirelli World Challenge at PIR

The Pirelli World Challenge made a stop in Portland for the Rose Cup Races on a very hot weekend in July. We always follow PWC and make a point to work a few races each year, usually the Texas stop at the Circuit of The Americas, and any other race weekends we can find time to attend. With the Portland International Raceway being only a short drive away from our Seattle base, we made plans to attend the annual Rose Cup Races and catch up with the PWC championship this past July.

Earchphoto - PWC — 2018 Rose Cup Races featuring Pirelli World Challenge – Portland International Raceway.

The Pirelli World Challenge races always make for an interesting weekend: different classes competing, very challenging and competitive races, and of course great cars for all the racetrack enthusiasts to see. In PWC we see Bentley, Aston Martin, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes Benz, and more, all competing for top spot on the leaderboard. It’s a great racing weekend and also a great show for the fans, with many opportunities to meet the drivers and interact with team members.

In the SprintX GT Pro-Am GTA class, Parker Chase and Ryan Dalziel crossed the finish first in their Audi R8 GT3 LMS, both on Saturday and Sunday, and got on the top spot of the podium with a double victory. Chase, only 17 years old, is having an amazing season and obtaining great results in the No.19 R8. The duo also gave a sneak peek during practice, leading the pack and delivering very consistent runs on the Audi, lap after lap.

The Sunday SprintX race was not without some drama: as Parker Chase drove through a corner in the lead, while an accident behind the Audi sent several cars off track through the turns, and the No.19 ended up crossing the finish line in second place after one of the competitors came back on the track in front of Chase. Clearly, the PWC Officials rectified the result prior to the podium ceremony, but it was indeed a moment of nervousness for the Vertical Bridge/New Braunfels Team.

In the GT SprintX Pro class, K-Pax racing had a very tough Saturday when mechanical issues forced the team to retire both cars from the competition. On Sunday, the team was able to get the No.3 Bentley Continental GT3 of Maxime Soulet and Rodrigo Baptista ready for the race – and the duo did not disappoint. Despite starting at the back of the class, the Bentley made up positions during the race, to cross the finish line in second behind Pfaff Motorsports No.96 Porsche of Scott Hargrove and Wolf Henzler. Following the race and podium ceremony however, a time penalty to the first finisher for an infraction on the track ended up with the No.3 Bentley in first place and the Soulet/Baptista duo getting the fifth win of this season.

In the TC race, Vesko Kozarov of Team Rearden Racing won both Saturday and Sunday in his Nissan 370Z. Mark Wilkins and Michael Lewis got the 1-2 finish for Hyundai in TCR on Saturday, while points leader Ryan Eversley got the round 8 win on Sunday.

Team Panoz Racing got the win twice, as Ian James and Mathew Keegan won race 1 on the No.50 and Preston Calvert won Race 2 in the No.51, while San Antonio native Harry Gottsacker conquered the top spot in GTS.