About the Fan Club

Here are some common questions asked about the Derrike Cope Fan Club.

Q: Who are the officers for the Derrike Cope Fan Club?

A: President - Ken Fleming, Vice President - Jeff Cope, Treasurer - Jeff Gutshall, and Secretary - Bruce Bates.

 

Q: Where is the mail address so I can join the Derrike Cope Fan Club?

A: The traditional style of mailing fan club is not available. All fan club information takes place on the website.

Q: What are some email contacts?

A: - general information about the fan club
- Ken Fleming, President

Jeff Cope - Jeff Cope, Vice President

- Jeff Gutshall, Treasurer

- Bruce Bates, Secretary

Q: How do I send something to Derrike to autograph or how do I get an autographed postcard?

A: Please see the page that describes this.

 

Q: How did the website come to be?

A: During the summer of 1996, Jeff Cope (no relation to Derrike) got some free web space with his ISP and decided to do a web site for Derrike Cope. After some effort along with help from his brother, Bob Cope, he was able to contact Derrike and get approval for the website to become the Official Website for Derrike Cope on September 9, 1996. When Derrike joined the Skittles team, they created a website and decided they were going to be the Official website. This required a change so the website turned into the Derrike Cope Fan Club. Derrike decided to not do a mailing fan club anymore and thus his fan club would only be on the website. The fan club grew, officers were selected, and in 1998 Derrike had his very first fan club meeting. The fan club continues to grow and in 1999 started offering a mailing fan club again in addition to the website fan club. Later, after 4 years of outstanding effort, Jeff Cope decided to modify his role within the fan club, and Jeff Gutshall maintained the website. When Jeff Gutshall later became busy, Jeff Cope volunteered to take the webmaster role back.

10 Year Anniversary
September 7, 2006 - You may not realize it, but Saturday, September 9th, is this website's 10th year anniversary! Some of you have been with us from the beginning and some of you have recently joined us. The constant throughout the past ten years though has been our devoted support for Derrike Cope. We hope that you have gained an insight into Derrike's career and have had a place to turn to get that information. Speaking of such, that is a perfect segue to give a background on the history of the website and fan club.

During the summer of 1996, Jeff Cope (no relation to Derrike) received some free web space with his first ISP and since information was difficult to find on Derrike, he decided to do a web site for him. It started as a single page but with the help of other fans, the website continued to grow. If you want to see the first fans that found the website, be sure to check out the beginning of the guestbook. Just for fun we found the oldest version of the home page of the website we could which was from December 12, 1996.

After some effort, along with help from Jeff's brother Bob Cope, he was able to contact Derrike and get approval for the website to become the Official Website for Derrike Cope on September 9, 1996. When Derrike joined the Skittles team for the next season, they created a website and decided they were going to be Derrike's Official website. This required a change so the website turned into the Derrike Cope Fan Club. Derrike decided to not do a mailing fan club anymore and have his fan club only on the website. The fan club grew, officers were selected, and in 1998 Derrike had his very first fan club meeting. The fan club continues to grow, along with the website, again through the help of Derrike's dedicated fans. We think the website is one of the best driver's websites out there and we hope you do too. Thank you for the past 10 years of fun and support!

From Derrike:
"I am pleased to acknowledge the 10 year anniversary of the Derrike Cope Fan Club website. I have to take time to thank everyone involved that has made this happen and have kept the information up to date for all this time. The officer’s, Jeff Cope, Jeff Gutshall, Bruce Bates, and Ken Fleming, who all have been instrumental in this process as well as the orchestration of the fan club meetings, I owe a debt of gratitude. This is an outstanding site with a lot of past and present information with regard to my racing career. I want to personally thank all the fans for their participation as well with pictures and comments from races that they have attended throughout the years. I am working hard on our racing program currently as well as next year with the hopes of having another ten years!"

Best Regards,