BRAINERD, Minn. – As a racecar driver also driven to help others succeed, Jed Copham may well have been fated to buy and operate the Brainerd International Raceway.
BIR confirmed in a statement that 46-year-old Jed Copham was swimming Sunday from his parents' boat near Fort Myers when he went missing. Search crews did not find Copham until a body washed up at the Punta Russa boat ramp around 9:50 a.m. Monday.
Copham and his family purchased BIR back in 2006. And according to his colleagues and friends, the 46-year-old father of two began transforming the track right from the beginning.
“Jed was everything to everybody in the racing community. It wasn’t just the racing part of it. It was how he ran the track, how he made people feel at home here,” said Gary Curtis, owner of the Performance Driving School located at BIR.
Curtis was among several colleagues who gathered at a cold and barren BIR Tuesday to remember their friend. Curtis first met Copham when he was a student in his class. The instructor quickly realized Copham’s inherent talent behind the wheel.
“Unbelievably good,” Curtis said, adding, “I’ve seen literally thousands of people in my performance school and he was a standout.”
And while Copham continued competing as a driver – including in Daytona, Fla. – he pursued work on a parallel track by becoming the BIR owner. It’s the latter role where friends and colleagues believe he made the most significant impact.
“Jed would believe in other people, and that makes it easier for you to believe in what you’re doing. He was always supportive about wanting to see events grow in this area for everybody in this area,” said Ken Lacy, co-owner of Lakes Jam – an annual country and rock music festival held at BIR.
“[He had] kind of a full-throttle attitude. Very passionate about the racing and making the track better,” said Jason Roue, a family friend and colleague.
But Roue noted that Copham’s enthusiasm for his work came second to the commitment to his family and community.
“People loved him,” Roue said, adding: “I felt he would do anything for anybody if they needed him to. And a lot of people felt the same way towards him because of that and his family.”
As for the BIR itself, his colleagues don’t yet know the future of the track. But they do know the racing community will come together to help in any way they can.
“I fielded well over a hundred calls yesterday and everyone said, ‘I’m here for you. We’re here to help the family. We’re here to help the track. We want it to go forward,” Curtis said, adding a moment later how difficult moving forward will be: “It’s incredibly hard to imagine this track… without Jed Copham.”