There was a text to Kristi Copham on Saturday morning to confirm a phone interview and she responded: "I am out near drifting and it's very loud."
A few minutes later, the connection was made and the first question was obvious: What's drifting?
"We're having the Drift Bash this weekend," Copham said. "There are around 500 cars here … a bunch of Mazdas, all going sideways, no one's going straight."
Jed and Kristi Copham purchased Brainerd International Raceway in July 2006 — saving it from probable sale to developers. The Cophams immediately started investing to refurbish BIR and regain its status as Minnesota's premier racing facility.
Jed, 46, was visiting his parents last Nov. 11 in the Fort Myers, Fla., area for a celebration of his father Dave's 75th birthday, when he drowned off the family boat in the waters near the Sanibel Bridge.
"It took three months to get back on my feet and realize, 'Jed's gone, and I have a racetrack to run,' " Kristi said. "I had been working with him from the start. As I'm running all over, I still see in my mind scenes of him out here."
Kristi is her own general manager at BIR. "When it comes to irreplaceable, I have Dan Antrim as the head of the maintenance department," she said. "He's been here since way back. Anything that needs to be fixed or improved, Dan is going to make sure that happens."
The hobbyists — bracket drag racers, drifters, sports car clubs, muscle cars, go-karts, motorcycle racers, you name it — are the lifeblood of BIR on weekends from mid-April to mid-October.
