Several beautiful venues are visited each year by the Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA® Super Tour (HST), and Portland International Raceway (PIR) is most certainly one such stop. With osprey and eagles soaring overhead, SCCA’s Oregon Region executed another excellent affair May 9-10, 2026, during HST’s fifth event of the season.
Sunday morning opened with 15-minute qualifying for each of the six run groups around PIR’s 1.977-mile, 12-turn circuit near the Columbia River. The afternoon then saw magnificent conditions with temperatures hovering in the low 70-degree range for 35-minute or 25-lap contests that decided who stepped upon the victory podium to receive commemorative bottles of Mazza Vineyards sparkling wine.
A Spring Getaway
Floridian Ken Kannard has spent the last couple weeks racing his way across the United States. To start, he loaded up the RV at home in Sebring, and headed to Jennings, OK, to be part of the HST weekend at Hallett Motor Racing Circuit. There he drove the No. 5 Hoosier/Mazda/Carbotech/JPM Mazda Miata, an F Production (FP) car being developed with help from Jesse Prather who brought the machine down from Topeka, KS, for that event.
Immediately after that gathering, Kannard headed west to spend time with family in Colorado, then made his way to the Northwest for the HST weekend at PIR. In Portland, however, Kannard met up with his No. 51 Northwest Cable Construction/Hoosier/JPM/Carbotech Acura Integra, another FP car of his which was hauled out from Prather’s shop in Kansas by Joey Smith.
While Kannard spent a little time competing in Spec Racer Ford some years ago, the bulk of his experience and success have been in Production classes.
“As opposed to a spec class, in Production you can do things to the car a little beyond stock,” Kannard said about his Production preference. “There are still a lot of stock components, and that’s why they call it Production, but the ruleset is pretty good. Plus, there’s a very good family of people in Production.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s E, F or H Production … I just found this community of people in Production racing who are awesome,” Kannard continued. “These people are friends, as well as competitors. You go out and have beer with your friends at night, then you race hard against them the next day. We’re all in this together to have fun and be competitive.”
Even though Kannard lived in Portland when he was a younger man, this was actually his first time on course at PIR. It was a bucket-list stop for him; with only Lime Rock Park, Summit Point Motorsports Park and Barber Motorsports Park still on his “to do” list.
Kannard was certainly competitive this weekend in Oregon, taking back-to-back FP victories. A couple HST trophies and bottles of Mazza Vineyards sparkling wine certainly made the trip worthwhile.
“It’s a fun track,” said the 25-year member of SCCA about PIR. “It has a lot of high speed, and I like that style of driving. On the two long straights, I can get into fifth gear. And there are some high-speed turns at the end of the backstraight. It’s just a good track and I enjoyed it.”
One-Man Band from New Zealand
A shelf above the fireplace is where Ross Murray keeps his trophies, which means he must have one long fireplace since the accomplished racer has gathered many, many trophies over his 30 years with SCCA. That fact is strange since the Cal Club member didn’t originally fancy himself a driver.
“Racing was what the rich people do. You never thought it was in your budget,” Murray stated. “That’s why I never necessarily thought about doing racing.”
Born and raised in New Zealand, Murray was establishing a welding business in the mid-‘80s when he decided to visit California with a couple friends before hunkering down and getting serious about his future. A devotee of the TV show Hawaii Five-0, the 25 year old was instantly enamored with California and Marina del Rey to be specific. He hung out for as long as he could, then went back to New Zealand before returning to The States again. That rhythm went on for a bit until Murray just decided to make the U.S. his new home.
“I met a girl, got a boss who loved me … and it just became too easy to stay,” Murray recalls. “I was so naïve about life and things in general. When I came to Marina del Rey, I thought that was America. I had no idea places like Oklahoma existed. Not a clue.”
Murray later founded a small metal-fabrication shop in Marina del Rey doing stainless steel work on boats. He then stumbled upon racecar work through mutual friendships and some dirt car competition. He assisted in the build of an early American Sedan (AS) car, then was asked to help out at Willow Springs International Raceway for an event.
“That’s not what I do. I’m a welder,” was Murray’s response to the request. “I don’t know anything about running a racecar, or tire pressures and all that stuff.”
One thing followed another, and Murray built a reputation as a sage crewman. Later, he had the chance to get behind the steering wheel and things just progressed.
“I started American Sedan in 1997, and I had buddies along,” Murray said. “I’ve never had a paid crew. But I had buddies who were various construction guys, plumbers and roofers, but never a professional mechanic. But those guys kind of go away, you know. They have lives, they have families. When they were single, it was a good time to go to the track with Ross and hang out, drink beer and barbeque. But as time goes on … it has become just myself.
“Normally you get up early and work on the car, go qualify, then this or that … but to race the car, work on the car, load the car, and then try to drive home is sometimes a challenge. If I can get 200 or 300 miles in after a weekend, I’m grateful.”
What keeps Murray going? Well, two first-place trophies for winning AS races at PIR this weekend in the No. 74 Hoosier Ford Mustang probably helps. But there has to be more, right?
“There are weird things that keep coming along that you want to keep doing,” was Murray’s explanation. “Each year there seems to be some other reason to swap classes or do a different car.”
Sunday Race Winners
Below are provisional race winners from Sunday’s Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA Super Tour conducted at Portland International Raceway in Oregon. Each entry includes Car Class: Driver Name, SCCA Region, and Car. An asterisk (*) denotes drivers with a weekend sweep in the class.
*American Sedan®: Ross Murray, Cal Club, Ford Mustang
B-Spec: Derrick Ambrose, Oregon Region, Mazda 2
*E Production: Austin Bradshaw, Oregon Region, Mazda RX-7
*F Production: Ken Kannard, Atlanta Region, Acura Integra
*H Production: Bill Okell, Oregon Region, MG Midget
*Formula Enterprises® 2: Jon Mcclintock, Oregon Region, SCCA Enterprises FE2 Mazda
Formula F: John Hill, Oregon Region, Crossle 35F
*Formula Vee®: Quinn Posner, Northwest Region, Protoform P3
*GT-1: Michael Mcaleenan, Northwest Region, Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo
*GT-2: Brad Mcallister, Oregon Region, Ford Mustang
*Spec Miata: John Salerno, New England Region, Mazda Miata
Spec MX-5: Christian Hoagland, Cal Club, Mazda MX-5
*Spec Racer® Ford Gen3: Caleb Shrader, Oregon Region, SCCA Enterprises SRF3
*Super Touring® Lite: Jared Korth, San Francisco Region, Mazda MX-5
*Super Touring® Under: Marc Hoover, Cal Club, Mazda MX-5
*Touring 1: Ed Gless, Northwest Region, Pontiac GTO
*Touring 2: Scotty B White, Northwest Region, Ford Mustang GT
*Touring 3: Gamaliel Aguilar-Gamez, Northwest Region, Nissan 370Z
*Touring 4: Scotty B White, Northwest Region, Ford Mustang
It’s Go, Go, Go for Mid-O
There are 2,440 miles between PIR and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, which is where HST’s next soirée happens May 15-17, 2026, for a fantastic three-day event hosted by SCCA’s Ohio Valley Region. Registration is open now for both Drivers and Volunteers to avail themselves of a wonderful weekend along the lush, 2.4-mile, 15-turn, natural terrain circuit that hosted SCCA’s Runoffs® for years.
As usual, racing from Mid-Ohio will be presented live, online and for free thanks to the popular HST video broadcast. But before then, competition from Portland can be enjoyed in hindsight thanks to the on-demand video playback at the SCCA YouTube channel. Sunday victory podium celebrations can also be viewed at the Summit Racing Equipment SCCA Road Racing Facebook page.
Photo: Ken Kannard came all the way from Florida to claim both F Production wins at PIR during the HST weekend.
Photo by Doug Berger
