When people think about sports in Portland, they think about the Trailblazers, the Timbers, the Thorns, the Winterhawks and the Pickles. Racing isn’t often at the top of people’s list when they think about major sports. However, Portland hosts some major racing events each year, which can draw crowds of 50,000 or more over the course of a weekend. As part of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, the Portland E-Prix highlighted the convergence of cutting-edge technology, sustainability, and high-speed racing. The 2024 double-header race marked the second time that Formula E made the city of Portland the only stop that the series makes in the United States before the only American round of the series is stolen by Miami for 2025. 

A Showcase of Innovation and Sustainability

For those of you who have ever been to a race for any of the normal race car series, you’ll know that ear plugs are highly recommended. Even my 10hp racing kart is loud enough to cause my wife to ban me from starting it up after the sun goes down so that we don’t make enemies of our neighbors. Formula E has carved out a unique niche in the motorsport landscape by championing electric vehicle (EV) technology and sustainability. At low speeds the cars are near silent and at top speed down Portland’s main straight, they sound like a swarm of futuristic fighter jets. They never reach the ear-splitting decibels of NASCAR, which is a little like locking yourself in a closet with a thunderstorm every time the pack goes past. 

As a motorsport fan, people often ask me if the larger, more prominent series, Formula 1 will ever go full electric, and the answer is simple, it can’t. At least until 2039. Formula E has an exclusive license with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the largest motorsport governing body which oversees several major motorsport series Formula 1, Formula E, the World Endurance Championship (think the 24hrs of Lemans), the World Rally Championship, and the World Karting Championship. Formula E teams compete with state-of-the-art electric race cars, showcasing improvements in battery life, energy efficiency, and overall EV performance. The racing is close, the technology is cutting-edge, and for those families with small children who thought NASCAR’s Pacific Office Automation 147 was much too loud, the noise level is much lower but still exciting and futuristic.

Formula E has also built its brand off a sustainability and renewable energy message. The series advertises itself as having a “certified net zero carbon footprint.” The series achieves this by consistently reducing its carbon footprint year over year. It also offsets all of its unavoidable emissions (mostly from freight and business travel) through several energy generation projects around the world using landfill gas, biomass and wind power. The project based in the United States has three main components: 1) expanding landfill gas collection and destruction systems, 2) redirecting landfill gas to use it in natural gas boiler equipment and 3) electricity generation from the landfill gas. Their US project is based at a municipal solid waste landfill site in South Carolina.

2024 Portland E-Prix

The 2024 Portland E-Prix consisted of rounds 13 and 14 in the 2024 Formula E championship. It is the penultimate stop on the calendar before they finished the season in London on July 20-21. The start of the weekend saw New Zealander Nick Cassidy of Jaguar TCS Racing leading German and Mauritian Pascal Wehrlein of TAG Hauer Porsche by 25 points (167 to 142). Cassidy failed to score and Wehrlein had far from a clean weekend spending much of the second race with no front wing. This allowed Cassidy’s teammate Mitch Evans to make up ground and come even with Wehrlein on points with both drivers now at 155. Wehrlein’s Portuguese teammate, António Félix da Costa was the real winner, however. Félix da Costa won both races to bring him up into 4th place in the standings with 134 points. 

Félix da Costa continued the process of reviving a lackluster start to the season, winning four of the last five races meaning that 100 of his 134 points leaving Portland were gained in the most recent five races and only 34 coming from the first nine. Former Formula E Champion (2018, 2019), French driver Jean-Éric Vergne had a good second day taking his record 17th pole, the most in the series history. Dutch racer Robin Frijns also had back-to-back podiums in Portland. 

First African Formula E Champion

The formula E Season ended in London on July 21 with the second of its London double header. After thrilling races in Portland and London, Pascal Wehrlein was able to pass Nick Cassidy and hold off Mitch Evans to secure the 2024 Formula E Driver’s Championship, with his team TAG Hauer Porsche edging out Jaguar TCS Racing for the constructor’s championship. 

Wehrlein took his first formula E title after finishing second in the second of London’s doubleheader on July 21st. The race involved a tight battle between him and his two main Jaguar title rivals Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy. The Porsche driver entered the final race of the season three points ahead of Evans and four points ahead of Cassidy after gaining ground in Portland and the first race in London. Cassidy started on pole for the final race, but he suffered a tire puncture and ultimately had to retire after colliding with Wehrlein’s teammate and Portland e-Prix double winner Antonio Felix da Costa. Wehrlein was able to overtake Evans in the later laps of the race after Evans missed his second Attack Mode to take 2nd in the race behind Oliver Rowland and 1st in the championship. 

Wehrlein grew up in Germany and flies the German flag for his racing pursuits, however his mother is from Mauritius, an African island nation in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar. Mauritius was a European colony, most recently claimed by the United Kingdom until its independence in 1968. It was the British Empire’s main sugar producing colony. The colony has a history of slavery related to its sugar plantations, and imported indentured labor after slavery was abolished in 1835. Mauritius has a blend of ethnicities including South Asian (mainly Indian), African (slaves and workers imported mainly from Mozambique, Madagascar and Zanzibar), European (British, Dutch and French), and Chinese. 

Wehrlein is thus the first driver with African heritage to win the Formula E Championship, with other winners hailing from Brazil, Portugal, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. He is also the first German Champion for the series. 

Jaime Chadwick’s Portland Test Hints at Potential Formula E Move

One of the most prominent female drivers, former 3-time FIA W Series Winner Jaime Chadwick was able to drive Andretti’s Formula E car. Chadwick currently drives in Indy NXT for Andretti Global and will race in Portland in August during the Grand Prix of Portland weekend. Her test in the Formula E car could be an indication that Andretti is looking at her for a potential move from the US-based IndyCar support series to the all-electric international series with the Andretti team. 

Other Races at PIR

Formula E was the second of three major races that will be held in Portland in 2024. The NASCAR Xfinity Series Pacific Office Automation 147 was held in June and the IndyCar Grand Prix of Portland will return August 23-25. PIR hosts many other races throughout the year such as drag racing, motorcross, kart racing, Spec Miata, Vintage racing, and more. Annually one of the bigger local events are the Rose Cup Races which were held July 13-14 in 2024. If you fancy trying your hand as a racecar driver, local company Prodrive hosts a driving school, track days and rentals of Spec Racer Fords.  

Bryson Davis is a business, nonprofit, and real estate attorney at PNW Business Law and spent his entire childhood being told by his mother that “it’s not a race,” instructions he still fails to heed.