Brainerd International Raceway to celebrate 50 years of racing this weekend during the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals

BRAINERD, Minn. – When the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) rolls into Brainerd International Raceway this week for the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals, a legion of about 100,000 drag racing-crazed fans will follow, prepared to celebrate the return of nitro-fueled racing as well as BIR’s 50th anniversary.

The Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals is Thursday through Sunday and features the best drag racers on the planet who pilot 10,000-horsepower dragsters capable of covering the 1,000-foot track in about 3.6 seconds. It’s the biggest annual sporting event in the Upper Midwest and has been for the last 37 years.

But before the NHRA started bringing its drag racing stars to BIR, the track was better known for the road racers that paraded through the pits. Built in 1968, BIR (initially called Donnybrooke Speedway) was a 3.1-mile, 10-turn strip of asphalt through woods and wetlands north of Brainerd. The brainchild of retired airline pilot and amateur road racer George Montgomery, the track was built to solve a challenge for the Sports Car Club of America’s (SCCA) Land O’ Lakes Region, headquartered in the Twin Cities. There were no road courses within the region, requiring SCCA racers like Montgomery to travel outside the region or use makeshift tracks at airports and large parking lots.

After opening, BIR was an instant hit, even with limited infrastructure: very little seating, few restrooms, limited concessions, and camping. The track’s grand opening in August attracted 25,000 fans, who overwhelmed the track to watch the SCCA’s National Races. A line of cars stretched three miles down State Highway 371 as fans waited to get in the gates.

The track grabbed the attention of every major road racing team as well. Household names like Mario Andretti, AJ Foyt, Bobby Unser, Al Unser, Jackie Stewart, Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, Mark Donohue and David Hobbs raced their Ferraris, Lolas, McLarens and Porsches on BIR’s track in those early years, with fans crowding the track and watching from the hoods and roofs of their cars.

The track’s mile-long straightaway gained the attention of drag racers, too. The first official race in 1968 was an NHRA drag race, with Doc Halladay driving his AA/Fuel dragster to a finals win. The Crown Auto Funny Car Championships were added soon after that, followed by the NHRA Nationals in 1982 – called the Quaker State North Star NHRA Nationals. Shirley Muldowney won the Top Fuel class that year.

In 2003, BIR tore up its dragstrip and laid 700 feet of concrete and new asphalt down-track. Billed as “the flattest and fastest dragstrip in the country,” BIR wasted no time breaking records. That first year, Larry “Spiderman” McBride rode his nitro-burning drag bike to a world record at 5.883 seconds and 242.67 mph. Two years later, Tony Schumacher ran the fastest quarter-mile time ever, at 4.446 seconds and 337.58 mph.

Possibly the most famous racer to compete at BIR was actor Paul Newman, who raced as an SCCA amateur nearly every year from 1975 until 1988 when he announced he’d be driving as a professional in the Trans-Am Series. His first pro race was at BIR that year, and he won.

Over the years, the track showed a commitment to offering a wide variety of motorsports for its fans, including drag racing, road racing, karting, Superbike racing, snocross, NASCAR, endurance racing, drifting, autocross, lawnmower racing and watercross, which involves snowmobiles racing on open water. Along the way, many records were broken, including the fastest quarter-mile in a dragster by Tony Schumacher in 2005.

During the track’s five decades, the last 10 years have been the most significant under the leadership of owners Jed and Kristi Copham, racing enthusiasts from Forest Lake who bought the track in 2006. They closed the deal just 10 days before the NHRA came to town for the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals. The Cophams brought with them a commitment to restoring a strong road racing program to BIR’s schedule, which had become primarily drag racing.

The first piece of business was to add a new strip of track to separate the road course and the drag strip, allowing both road racing and drag racing to take place simultaneously. Most weekends now include both road racing and drag racing, giving fans two or more types of racing to watch for the price of a single ticket.

With a new safety barrier system now in place, the road course is now certified to host every level of road racing except Formula One.

“Our first love is road racing, so we wanted to bring that back to BIR and rebuild that program,” Jed Copham said. “We brought back the Trans Am Series, a NASCAR divisional race, endurance racing and other types of events for our fans. We’re always looking for something new to feature on the track.”

BIR still has almost two months worth of racing left after this weekend.

BIR is one of North America’s largest race tracks, featuring a world-class quarter-mile drag strip, the 3.1-mile, 10-turn Donnybrooke Road Course, the 2.5-mile, 13-turn Competition Road Course, 300 acres for rustic camping, 164 full-service RV sites and 12 on-site condos. BIR is about 120 miles north of the Twin Cities. For more information, visit www.BrainerdRaceway.com, or call 1-866-444-4455.