Mike Cope has "done a little bit of everything" in motorsports, but what the veteran racer, racecar builder, and one-time track owner is doing now is Trans Am. He's doing it in the biggest way: building complete, turnkey TA2 cars while providing driver development and arrive-and-drive services. "We have the longest-standing team ownership in Trans Am," Cope reported, "and at every event for the past two years, Cope chassis have made up 50% or more of the field."

Cope's enthusiasm for the series reflects his commitment. "Trans Am was initially built for the blue-collar racer. Cheap racing is an oxymoron; there's no such thing. But in North America, there is no less expensive form of road racing—going to iconic race courses such as Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, and Mid-Ohio—than the TA2 division."

These versatile cars can also compete in SCCA GT classes. In fact, "they can run everywhere," said Cope. "They make over 500 horsepower, with 500 pound-feet of torque, on a 10-inch tire, with a power-to-weight ratio as close to an Xfinity [now NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series] car as you will ever get."

That kinship with a stock car makes Trans Am a viable path to NASCAR, too, and it's why, Cope added, "the car we build today is really similar to the perimeter car we ran in All Pro."

Short Track Origins

Cope described his deep roots in west-central Florida and in circle track racing. His grandfather helped build Sunshine Speedway in the late 1950s and served as mayor of Pinellas Park in the 1960s. "My grandfather, my father, my brothers—all of us raced," Cope recalled. In the early-to-mid 1990s, he ran the Slim Jim All Pro series, "with short-track greats Jody Ridley, Bobby Gill, and Jeff Purvis." He won the series championship in 1994 and 1996. In 1995 he became a team owner, purchasing the car he was driving from Bobby Labonte. He also "played around a little" with Hooters Pro Cup and ran a season in Busch.

Along the way, Cope bought the 3/8-mile Bronson Speedway in Levy County. "We were running ASA, but then the Twin Towers fell, and in 2006–2008 it was just really bad. I tell people we never really had a bad night, but I never worked so hard for $500 in my life."

Cope sold the track in 2011, but not before it led him to his next opportunity. "We had these ASA cars sitting around, and a couple of friends said, 'Hey, if you make those cars road-race cars, we'll buy them from you.'" Another friend, George Lutich, wanted to run the 2010 Petite Le Mans at Road Atlanta. "So we took a couple of our old ASA cars up there and had a good time. And as they say, one thing leads to another, and the rest is history. We built our first chassis in 2011, and now we're some 80 cars deep, and counting."

Fully Equipped

Some might consider 80 cars in a decade and a half rather modest, but Cope "never had a desire to build 100 cars a year." Instead, "we have attention to detail in every car we build." He noted how one customer "took a car out of this shop, took it to Sebring, and ran over 500 miles with it in one weekend. That's what we pride ourselves on. It's not about working on their race car half the time they are there."

"Streamlined" production helps control both quality and cost. "Our engines come from PME [Pro Motor Engines], so we don't have to mess with them. Our wiring—QuickCar does that. Brown & Miller does our oil lines. There's a car in our shop that just got back from powder coat Monday. The body is on it now, the engine is in it, and we will have that car built in 10–12 days."

Cope will "build them in any form anybody wants, from bare chassis to whatever," but he clearly prefers to produce turnkey cars, with "your seat in it, and everything done" so "you can take it right to the track and race it." And except for "driver comfort options, like your choice of a cooling system," he prefers to build them all the same, all fully equipped. "I don't believe in upselling. I want you to get a car that's capable of winning, the same car that we are racing. So when we go out and win with [team driver and coach] Tom Merrill, I don't want you to think you can't. I want him to be able to get in your car and show you how fast it can go."

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