“ I ran( Jr. Dragsters) for about three years and then instead of running a Super Comp car, I actually jumped up and ran drag boats between the ages of 16 to 18,” Copeland, 29, says.“ After that, I basically drove a Pro Mod for a year and then I went to driving Gene( Snow’ s) A / Fuel car after that. I kinda missed the Top Dragster and Super Comp days and went from the boats to the Pro Mods.”

But the young racer wasn’ t content to be behind the wheel. He wanted to be the one to attach the wheel to a car he had built himself. Driving was great, but creating a winning race car from scratch was his passion. He still races occasionally and helps friends and teams with testing when the need arises, but for Copeland, it’ s not enough to drive or help tune a car. For Copeland, it’ s about the creation of the car.

“ I was kinda in between jobs( so) I went to work with( Sidnei) Frigo on the fuel car when he went to Top Fuel,” Copeland says.“ So I helped him for a season and I’ ve done that before and it wasn’ t quite for me. It was time to come back home and do what I really enjoy, which is building the cars.”

When he went to work as a full-time car builder, it wasn’ t long before his racing past helped create his racing future. Randy Meyer, with whom Copeland had raced previously, came calling and a formidable partnership was formed.

“ Luckily enough, I had Randy Meyer come to me, asking if I would be interested in helping him out,” Copeland adds.“ Things just kinda went from there. Since then, I’ ve done three cars for

Randy and numerous A / Fuel cars all around the country. Been pretty fortunate and can’ t complain with the way things are going right now.”

It’ s been a solid year for Copeland’ s brand. In addition to Meyer’ s machines, Bryan Brown has driven a Copeland-built Alcohol Funny Car to the 5.40s in competition. And that was Copeland’ s first-ever Funny Car.

Copeland takes the job seriously, understanding what’ s at stake if something goes wrong. He also knows that building a car is more stressful than driving it, and it takes a lot longer than five seconds to finish.

“ You’ ve gotta have lots of patience!” he laughs when asked the most important aspect of his job.“ You’ ve got somebody’ s life in your hands whenever you build a car. It’ s something I think a lot of people need to do just to understand the chemical makeup and stuff of what happens on the cars.

“ The more you know about things, I think the better off you’ re gonna be in driving a car and working on it. I think that’ s a lot of it. There’ s not a lot of people out there that can do this, but we’ re always looking for people, energetic people, and that’ s what it takes to drive this sport.”

– BRANDON W. MUDD DI

DI 30 UNDER 30 CLASS OF 2016

Jonnie Lindberg Dan Ferguson Jason Gardner Bronson Dunne Jason Hamstra Cory Reed Sarah Edwards Alex Hays Gage Burch Amanda Boicesco Caleb Cox Kevin Brannon Ryan Rakestraw Ty Tutterow Cody Medeisis Justin Lamb Krista Baldwin Chuck Grospitch Jimmy Daniels Jeff Pierce Joe Albrecht Shane Westerfield Christopher Menapace Alex Laughlin Brandon Seraphine Doug Foley Jr. Alex Taylor Justin Kirk Megan Meyer Trevor Larson

PHOTOS: CHRIS GRAVES, DI ARCHIVES

106 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 127