Bettenhausen Readies for Portland International Raceway Debut

PORTLAND, Ore., (July 11, 2019) – With 40 cars expected to compete in this weekend’s the 59th Annual Rose Cup Races presented by Fastlife.TV, race car driver Ben Bettenhausen is set to make his Portland International Raceway (PIR) debut in the No. 95 TechSport Racing Subaru BRZ tS.

“I’m very excited to run for the first time at Portland,” said Bettenhausen. “To prepare, I’ve been training hard on simulators to learn the track and have the best possible understanding of it heading into the weekend. I’ve also been reviewing videos of past races, which has proved to be incredibly helpful.”

The TCA class will run two 40-minute races July 13 and 14 on the 12-turn, 1.945 mile permanent road course, located just north of the city. The TCA field will begin their first of two practice sessions of the weekend Friday morning, July 12, before qualifying for race one later that evening. Race one will go green Saturday, July 13 at 4:00PM Pacific, where the fastest lap of that race for each driver will determine their starting positions for race two on Sunday, July 14 at 12:40PM. Both races will steam live on www.tcamerica.us.

Despite several setbacks in his debut season, Bettenhausen remains optimistic, prepared to make the most of his first year of full time competition in the TC America series. Mechanical failures beyond the driver’s control have hindered strong performances at several of the events this year, but Bettenhausen has pressed on to improve his racecraft with each session.

“This first year has been a testament to how challenging motorsports can be sometimes,” concluded Bettenhausen. “Everyone at TechSport Racing has been so excellent to work with and they’ve put in the work to get the No. 95 Subaru BRZ tS in a good spot for this weekend. It should handle exceptionally in the braking and handling through PIR’s high speed turns. I’m ready to get this weekend started!”