Dean Copeland was born Oct 10, 1988 in Silver Spring, MD to parents Kevin and Rhonda Copeland.  Dean’s Grandfather was best friends with Tiny Lund in high school in Iowa.  When Tiny became a successful NASCAR Driver, Grandpa Dean would always watch the races on TV.  Dean’s father raced go-karts as a young boy and even raced with retired NASCAR Driver Ricky Rudd, Open wheel racer Mark Dismore, and Scott Pruitt.  Once Dean got old enough to race, his father put him in a go-kart.  His father knew right away his son had something he didn’t.  Dean was fearless.

Dean started his racing career in go-karts at 10 years old. He raced in the World Karting Association Pavement Oval series.  During the 2 years racing ovals, Dean won many races and won the Maryland and Virginia State championships, along with multiple regional championships in the junior class. When Dean turned 12 years old, he was able to race in the road racing series in the WKA.  These Go Karts go over 100 MPH!, and they race on the same tracks that the Sport cars race on, from Daytona to Grattan Michigan, to Indiana ,to New Hampshire and everywhere in between.  Dean spent the next 4 years racing these Karts, and was able to achieve many goals.  He won 4 National Championships by the age of 15.  He also won many regional championships with the Woodbridge Kart Club and his home track Summit Point Raceway .

After winning everything there was to win in Go Karting, Dean longed for a new challenge in a race car.  After looking at many venues of road racing he decided on the Spec Miata series.  Dean is in his third year racing in Spec Miata.  Following is a list of his achievements during this time.

• Hard charger award at his SCCA driver school - 2006

• Finished 5^th place in the WDCR MARRS series in his first year - 2006

• Took the checkered flag 5 times in his second year - 2007

• Placed 4^th at the ARC at Road Atlanta in November 2007

• Set the Track record for Spec Miata at Summit Point Raceway, SCCA - 2008

• Set the Track record at CMP for Spec Miata, NASA - 2008