Racing community honors owner of Brainerd International Raceway

BRAINERD, Minn. (KMSP) - Friends and family gathered Saturday to remember the well-known owner of the Brainerd International Raceway, who died unexpectedly while swimming in Florida earlier this week. 

Dozens of people came out to the raceway to honor Jed Copham, saying the  track was his second home and he had a special way of making it feel like theirs too. 

“Jed was such a unique individual. He was the pulse the heart the face of the [Brainerd International Raceway],”  Justin Doerfler, the track announcer at BIR, said. “But, he was so humble but when you’d point him out people didn't think he was a track owner.”

Copham was 46 when he died. His family said they were boating off the west coast of Florida when he went overboard and never resurfaced. 

Those that came to honor him Saturday are evidence of the lives Copham touched in his 46 years. 

“You always know that the car community is very tight knit, but its times like this that you realize that’s actually true, that people are willing to come out here and just freeze to share memories,” Andrew Rosenau, a friend, said.  

Jed’s dad says the family is committed to continuing Jed’s legacy here at the raceway, and they plan to have more memorials when the season kicks up again in the spring.