Brainerd, Drag StripRacing Circuit

Brainerd International Raceway sits northwest of Brainerd in central Minnesota and has spent recent years re-establishing itself as a road-racing venue alongside a long-popular drag-racing programme. The track began life as Donnybrooke Speedway, the dream of Northwest Airlines pilot George Montgomery, who bought up some 800 acres in the late 1960s and, with SCCA figure Bill Peters Sr., plotted a fast 3.1-mile course through swamps and gullies. Its defining feature was a near one-mile main straight followed by a flat-out opening sweep, briefly giving it the longest straight and fastest corner of any American road course. Montgomery named it Donnybrooke in memory of two SCCA racers, Donny Skogmo and Brooke Kinnard, and it opened in 1968, soon attracting Can-Am, Trans-Am and even a one-off USAC IndyCar race. Renamed Brainerd International Raceway after Jerry Hansen bought it in 1973, the circuit thrived through the 1970s and became a fixture for AMA Superbike and, briefly, World Superbike racing. A later owner prioritised the lucrative NHRA drag nationals, which can draw 100,000 spectators, and road racing faded until Jed and Kristi Copham bought the facility in 2006. In 2008 they built the 2.5-mile Competition Road Course, using the back half of the original layout so racing and drag events can run simultaneously. The full 3.1-mile loop is now called the Donnybrooke Course and is used mainly for track days and schools, while racing concentrates on the shorter variant. Today BIR hosts national SCCA events including Trans Am, plus top-level MotoAmerica motorcycle racing.

Operated by: Brainerd International Raceway, LLC