The Race IndyCar Podcast takes a different direction this week, as it prepares for this weekend’s Portland race with a look back at one of the best motorsport finishes ever at the same venue in 1997.
Mark Blundell – the winner of that race by just 0.027s – joins hosts Jack Benyon and JR Hildebrand to take a dive into the golden era of the CART World Series and his breakthrough season in it, with that Portland win followed by triumphs on the streets of Toronto and in the 500-mile superspeedway race at Fontana.
But it’s the wet/dry finish at Portland where just 0.055s covered the top three and 1.1s covered the top five that made Blundell’s first win in America one of the most memorable victories in IndyCar history.
Blundell talks about not knowing he’d won the race until seeing the scoring pylon after, and takes you into the cockpit with him as he discusses the challenges of driving a 900bhp CART car in changeable conditions and with such strong competition around him as he mounted his Portland victory challenge out of the last corner of the last lap.
He ranks that race in his career, and also talks about that golden period for the PacWest team which had a relatively short run in IndyCar racing but is fondly remembered by many.
Back in 2022, Benyon and Hildebrand also update on the IndyCar title chasers’ testing programmes going into the season’s decisive week and outline what to expect from the always-entertaining Portland race this weekend, the penultimate round of the season.
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