Portland Track Proved Successful for Louis Foster in the Past, Brit Now Ready for IndyCar Debut in No. 45 RLL Droplight Honda
Foster captured the 2022 Portland F2000 and 2023 INDY NXT races at Oregon road circuit
By: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Photo Courtesy RLLR)
PORTLAND, Ore. (August 7, 2025) – Portland International Raceway’s 12-turn, 1.964-mile road circuit has proven to be a successful track for young racer Louis Foster.
With wins in 2022 (USF2000) and 2023 (INDY NXT) in the lower racing divisions at Portland, Foster comes to PIR this weekend (Aug. 8-10) seeking more success as a rookie in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES with his No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Droplight Honda machine in the BITNILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland.
Foster, the 2022 USF 2000 and 2024 INDY NXT series champion, currently leads the NTT INDYCAR SERIES “Rookie of the Year” standings by four points as he heads to Portland in the 15th event in the 2025 17-race North American open-wheel campaign.
Foster’s pole position at Road America in June stunned the IndyCar community and he has also notched other superb qualifying spots in the coveted Firestone Fast Six this year as a “rookie” in the highly competitive NTT INDYCAR SERIES. Now, the 22-year-old driver from England comes to a track this weekend in which he looks for his best race finish in his initial tour in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.
While he has led events and has run in the top five several times this year, Foster’s luck at the end of the races has not been the best. But Portland holds a special place for the personable Foster when practice opens on Friday at 2:30 p.m. PDT.
“I have had some pretty good results at Portland before,” said Foster. “I was on pole at both the INDY NXT rounds and had some good results in the USF Pro as well. I like the track. It’s fun and fast and short as well. So, it’s enjoyable. Hopefully it will produce some good racing.
“I’m looking forward to it. The most challenging area is probably at the fast left-right section at the start, just after the alternate start-finish. We just need to keep building on our performance and have a good race. That’s key this weekend. It’s going to be out at last road course, which is a type of track we’ve been quite good on all year. But we just haven’t maximized it so far this year. Now, that is our plan this weekend at Portland in the RLL Droplight Honda.”
The RLL team has been successful at Portland in the past including victories with Max Papis in 2001 and Takuma Sato in 2018. The squad also won pole positions with Bryan Herta in 1998, Papis in 2001 and Graham Rahal in 2023 at PIR.
This weekend at the BITNILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland, Foster will team up with RLL drivers Graham Rahal in the No. 15 RLL HendricksonHonda and Devlin DeFrancesco in the No. 30 RLL Dogecoin Honda.
The BINILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland race weekend starts with the NTT INDYCAR SERIES machines on track on Friday at 2:30 p.m. PDT with a practice session. The second practice round takes place on Saturday at 9 a.m. PDT followed by qualifying and the Firestone Fast Six at 11:30 a.m. PDT. Sunday’s 216.04-mile feature race is set at 12 p.m. PDT. The 110-lap event will air live on FOX, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network.
