Bret Kepner
Like most of the people participating in the sport of racing and especially drag racing, Bret became interested in cars and the sport itself at an early stage of his life. However, unlike most of those involved, he has not believed it necessary to compete in a modified vehicle. His first race car was a stock 1966 Plymouth Barracuda entered into bracket racing. Since that start, he has competed in everything from roadsters, coupes, and dragsters to stock rental cars and has an impressive collection of trophies to show for it. One of his favorite forms of racing is to enter competition at a local track with rent a car and use driving skill to win the class.
While the racing itself is fun and interesting, Bret has not confined himself to that side of the sport. As a young enthusiast, he attended the University at St Louis majoring in Journalism and graduated with high honors. Since that beginning, Bret has had over 2,100 manuscripts published in magazines such as Super Stock Magazine and Super Stock & Drag Illustrated Magazine to name a couple. What is truly impressive is the fact that his works have appeared in a total of 57 major publications.
Next on his bucked list was to become a nationally recognized racing announcer where he has announced for NHRA, AHRA, IHRA, UDRA, NMCA, NMRA and ADRL at over 152 racetracks around the country. As if track announcing was not enough, Bret took on the job of TV host for IHRA in 1986 and continued with his TV participation, working for ESPN, FOX, NBC and CBS covering racing from the “inside” for 16 years.
In 1979 Bret continued to add to his expanding “job list” in racing by assuming the position of manager of Dragway 42 in West Salem, OH and in 1981 moving into the same position at St. Louis International Raceway. Still looking to add more ways to be involved, in 1989 he was named Director of the United States Super Circuit series and from 2003 through 2010 he promoted both the weekly Street Car Shootout Series and the monthly Outlaw All Star Series.
Still more levels of participation to be noted, in 1995 Bret opened the doors to his Bret Kepner School of Drag Racing that has graduated over 750 students. He has also researched and chronicled every drag racing facility ever built in a document to be placed in the National Archives for future historians.
Bret is a member of the Society of Land Speed Historians, was inducted into the East Coast Drag Racing Hall of Fame in Henderson, NC in 2007 and the St. Louis International Raceway/Gateway International Raceway Hall of Fame in 2008.