The 11th annual Monday Night Bike Race series kicks off tonight at Portland International Raceway (PIR). This popular series runs through August 27th and according to organizer Jim Anderson it’s one of the most popular series of its kind in the country,
“There seem to be more cyclists than ever, and they keep discovering that Portland International Raceway is a great bike-racing venue: it has great pavement, it’s completely closed to car traffic, and it’s right in Portland’s back yard.”
The course is a 1.9 mile loop that winds around the same, smooth pavement and sweeping turns used by race cars. It’s the perfect venue for beginners.
PIR is just north of Kenton (off the Yellow MAX line), a great warm-up bike ride from most of the city. Anyone who shows up by bike, carpool or MAX will get $1 off race entry (proceeds go to the BTA).
I checked out the action last year, see my report and photos.
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Monday Night Bike Race Series
Portland International Raceway (1940 N Victory Blvd)
Monday nights May 7 ~ August 27 (no racing June 4th)
Racing starts at 6:15pm.
More information at RaceMondayNight.com
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It is the Vanport MAX station…unless you want to stock up on goodies in Kenton and ride downhill. 😉
Thanks for having Monday night bike races…it is a lot quieter and no PIR car smell up here in Vancouver vs. car race days.
Tonight there were 2 big groups for the Masters 1/2/3 and 4/5. Not too many Novice or Women. The 4/5 was a bit of a mess, we could not figure out what laps were the primes and at the end we were very close to the 1/2/3 so there was a lot of confusion, we than got the bell for two laps so we sprinted twice to find at the finsh line a crash from the 1/2/3, it was crazy.
I saw an Ambulance pulling up as I was driving away, too bad.
Hopefully it will get better….
Ciao
Paolo
It will get better if the 4/5 field would obey the neutrality law when being overtaken by the pros. Teams rode like fools when all the yelling started and some guys were single file and pulling like hell at the front.
The whole of the blame lies on those 4/5’s that sped up, pulled, moved up in the field, etc etc. PIR is for learning, and if the official gives a clear mandate to “pull over, stop pedaling, coast, and let the pro field by” then riders should be smart enough to follow the law.
The lap cards are clearly displayed on the side of the track, and I heard the bell ring on prime lap.
Seemed pretty cut and dried to me.
If anything needs to “get better” it’s the riding of the 4/5 field. Which I was in.