Dirt
TRIBUTE : BLAKE COPSON
it there . Loved the atmosphere .”
Blake would continue going to the track with Joe as he grew up , ultimately helping Joe with the family race car , an Outlaw 10.5 Camaro , which went on to become Ryan Martin ’ s Street Outlaws Fireball Camaro . In 2017 , the Copsons took delivery of a brand-new Corvette that Blake would drive .
But before he could get started in the highhorsepower doorslammer , Joe took him to Frank Hawley ’ s Drag Racing School in Gainesville , Florida , to learn how to drive a race car . Copson excelled , focusing on Hawley ’ s guidance related to the mental aspects of driving .
The elder Copson had plenty of confidence in his son after the successful weekend at Hawley ’ s school . Still , they took baby steps with the car , eventually debuting at Lights Out 8 at South Georgia Motorsports Park in February 2018 .
“ When we first got the car done , a lot of people , myself included , were saying , ‘ Holy smokes , that ’ s a lot of car for somebody to start out in ,’” Joe remembers . “ He never drove any other car besides this car . Getting behind the wheel of a 4,500-horsepower car is a pretty tall task , but needless to say , he just had a God-given talent behind the wheel . I don ’ t know how to explain it , but he just loved it , thrived on it , and wasn ’ t intimidated . He was very good at listening ; less talk , more listening .”
The Copsons were still building confidence and taking small steps together at the Yellowbullet Nationals at Cecil County Dragway over Labor Day weekend later that year . Blake started winning rounds and ended up in the semifinals , where his driving skills would be put to the test . After launching , Copson started heading towards the wall while the front wheels were in the air , so he let out of it .
“ Me and Josh are standing on the starting line ,
we ’ re like , ‘ Well , that ’ s that .’ All of a sudden , Blake blips the throttle and corrects the car , and goes right down Broadway , and wins the round ,” Joe remembers . “ I look over at Josh , and he looks over at me and I was like , ‘ Did that really just happen ?’
“ The third round of Yellowbullet of 2018 was , at that very moment , an awakening to Blake ’ s natural ability ,” Joe adds .
By getting back on the throttle , Blake went against one of his father ’ s stipulations that was put in place when they started racing , which was to lift if the car ever started to go into a wheelstand . But it wasn ’ t done out of recklessness . He simply felt it was the right thing to do , and he was right .
“ I actually went to bat for Blake with his dad because Blake pedaled it at just the right moment ,” says tuner Josh Ledford , who had just started working with the Copsons as their main tuner that weekend . “ He had it under control , I didn ’ t see any crazy things , and so we just kept going . One of the agreements I had with his dad was that if there was ever a point where I asked [ Blake ] about something that was going on with the car and he couldn ’ t tell me , then we ’ d ease up a little bit . There was never that point . That kid was in there like a human Racepak .”
After making a slew of changes to the car to step up for the final round , Copson unleashed a 3.92 to take the win over past champion Mike Decker Jr ., who ran a 3.93 to make it one of the closest final rounds in Yellowbullet Nationals history .
“ Everybody , even ourselves , had given us very little chance of winning that race , and to go ahead and win it , was just like , oh my God ,” Copson says . “ We had dreamed about winning that race , and to do it in those circumstances , it was amazing .”
It was the first of numerous races Blake would go on to win in his short career . He picked up another Outlaw 10.5 win at one of Cecil County ’ s Outlaw Street Car Shootout events in 2019 , which helped him land on the DI 30 Under 30 list that year .
But 2020 was Copson ’ s breakout season , as
22 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated . com Issue 166