The Brainerd International Raceway (BIR) is a multi-purpose racing facility near the coast of the North Long Lake just outside Brainerd, a 2-hour ride away from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area in Minnesota. It began operating under the name of Donnybrook Speedway back in 1968 as a private initiative by the NHRA champion and American Motorsports Hall of Famer George Montgomery. The BIR road course has a 2.5-mile (4.02-km) Competition layout and a longer 3.1-mile (4.9-km) layout known as Donnybrook. The Motorsports complex includes a quarter-mile drag strip that holds the world record of speed in any dragster competition, thanks to the 337.58 MPH (543.28 km/h) reached by Tony Schumacher in 2005.
The Brainerd International Raceway hosts a wide variety of motorsports competitions such as the NHRA Nationals, MotoAmerica Superbike, the F4 US Championship, the TransAm Championship, and many other local club racing events. Winters in Minnesota are some of the coldest in the United States, with subzero temperatures and up to 44 inches of snow all over the place, enough reason for the Brainerd International Raceway to remain closed from November to March. During the rest of the year, racing enthusiasts are welcome to enjoy their favorite sports and even stay in some of the world-class accommodations available at BIR.
The Donnybrook Road Course at the Brainerd International Raceway is the original 3.1-miler layout carved in the woodlands by George Montgomery in 1968. This counterclockwise-oriented raceway starts near the end of the front straightaway and accelerates through sweeping turns 1 and 2, facing the same turn combinations as the competition circuit until passing turn number 8. Right after this turn, racers take a short Carousel-like turn number 9, a left-right combination in turns 10 and 11, and two sharp a ninety-degree turns 12 and 13, closing the loop on this highly technical and demanding layout.