SCCA Pro Racing

Brainerd International Raceway is bringing back professional road racing July 11-12 while showing appreciation to its fans and honoring the track’s late owner, Jed Copham. It’ll be the first spectator event this season at BIR, a free drive-in style nostalgic race where fans can also watch live streaming of Sunday’s two featured races on their mobile devices. 

The FREE Fan Appreciation Weekend and the Ryan Companie US presents the Jed Copham Tribute Race Weekend feature the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli and a full two days of wild road racing that also includes multiple Sports Car Club of America classes.  

The weekend is a chance for BIR to thank its fans, racers and the Brainerd community for supporting motorsports for more than 50 years. But it’s also a chance to honor Jed Copham, the late track owner who died suddenly and tragically in November 2018 in a swimming accident in Florida. When the series raced at BIR prior to the accident, Jed raced in the TA class against the series’ top professional drivers. To honor his love of racing and his commitment to road racing.

Fans will be treated to a unique format this weekend. BIR is encouraging fans to drive right up next to the track and watch from your vehicles, like a drive-in movie. Tailgating is allowed! To follow all the action, you can download the free Trans Am Series app (for Apple or Android) and watch live streaming of Sunday’s action. In all, there will be six hours of coverage, including live play-by-play of Sunday’s two 100-mile featured races, the second of which is the Jed Copham Memorial Race. Fans can also listen to coverage on BIR’s FM station: 87.9 FM. Click here for the weekend’s schedule.

The Trans Am Series has a long and rich history at BIR that dates back to 1969. Featuring professional drivers from throughout the country, the series includes five classes of racing: TA, TA2, XGT, SGT and GT, with classic muscle cars like Mustangs, Corvettes, Camaros and Challengers that fly around the 2.5-mile Competition Road Course. The schedule has practice and qualifying sessions on Saturday, followed by qualifying and the pair of 100-mile, 40-lap final races on Sunday.

“It will be nice to be back racing at BIR to pay tribute to our friend and former competitor Jed (Copham) after such a tragic loss a few short years ago,” said Brainerd winner Amy Ruman. “We haven’t raced here in a few years, but I’ve had some success at Brainerd in the past."

SCCA will also be on the road course for club racing between the Trans Am sessions. SCCA is great wheel-to-wheel racing, with a variety of open- and closed-wheel classes, as well as vintage racing.

BIR follows the latest safety measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including social distancing and wearing masks. We encourage all our racers, teams and fans to follow the CDC and MDH guidelines to ensure everyone’s safety.