Firestone Racing has brought more than 1,500 race tires for this weekend’s Portland Grand Prix at Portland International Raceway in Oregon.
Each entrant will receive six sets of the Primary black-walled tire while they will also have four sets of the red-walled Alternate tire and five sets of the gray-walled tires. The NTT IndyCar Series did not race here last season due to the pandemic however, the construction of both the Primary and Alternate tires are the same as what they brought to the race in 2019 while the compound is the same as was used at the Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix.
Speaking ahead of the race this weekend, Cara Adams, Director of Race Tire Engineering and Production commented saying:
Portland International Raceway is a special place for me because it was the first ever race I attended as a member of the Firestone Race Tire Engineering team back in 2007 – it’s great to be back! For this year’s race, the race tire engineering team is bringing a primary tire that will exhibit a slight decrease in grip, reduced wear and an increased rate of temperature gain relative to the 2019 Grand Prix of Portland primary tire. It featurs similar construction as 2019 Portland with the same compound used at this year’s Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The alternate tire will display similar grip, decreased wear and a decreased rate of temperature gain relative to the 2019 Grand Prix of Portland alternate tire. The alternate tire construction is similar to the 2019 Portland primary tire with the same alternate compound used at this year’s Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix of Indianapolis.