Date conflict for Portland Champ Car race

UPDATE The weekend of July 27th is the big annual brewers festival on the waterfront (http://www.oregonbrewfest.com/) July 24-27, which means downtown Portland will be full of beer drinkers. If you are planning on going to the race you will need to get a hotel reservation very early – the brew fest drew 60,000 people last year and they were not all locals. If Champ Car were smart, they would do a tie-in with this event promoter and try to get some of the beer drinkers to the track during the day before they get all drunk at night, and vice versa, get the race crowd downtown at night. If successful, PIR might feel like a NASCAR race that weekend. Champ Car President Steve Johnson said he was going to Portland soon to finalize plans for the race. Will he be able to deliver on this perfect synergy?

11/06/07 For Portland, Oregon locals who love the sight of speed and the sound of roaring motors, the weekend of July 25-27 next summer will have great appeal.

Except for one problem: You can't have it all.

Champ Car returns to Portland International Raceway in 2008, revealed Monday when the open-wheel series announced its 14-race schedule for next year. The Portland race, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2008, is slated for July 27.

That also happens to be the date for Clark County's largest sporting event, the AMA Toyota Motocross Championship at Washougal Motocross Park. The AMA Championship has staged its annual race at Washougal since 1980. More at The Colombian