Sean LePore had a bright future behind the wheel of his Bandolero car, but his sudden death at the hands of his father has shocked Huntsville’s racing community.

That’s what Robbie Edger, owner of Huntsville Speedway, said Friday following the death of Sean, 11, in a bizarre case that is tying up investigators in two states.

Sean and his brother Jesse, 9, were the victims in an apparent murder suicide Thursday morning in Murfreesboro, Tenn., at the hands of their father, Jamie, 46.

Jamie shot the two boys before turning his weapon on himself inside a Murfreesboro home as police officers were outside attempting to locate Jamie. The authorities came there after the discovery of the boys’ mother Jennifer’s body in the family’s Hazel Green home Wednesday night.

Jennifer LePore, 44, had been a special education aide at Hazel Green Elementary School since August 2022, and her two sons attended schools in Hazel Green.

Racing was one of the family’s pursuits. The Huntsville Quarter Midget Racing Association, for children ages 5 to 16 in the NASCAR Youth Series, posted a remembrance of the family on Facebook, calling the news “devastating.”

“Learning of a sudden death is never ‘easy,’ however this horrific event is truly unimaginable,” the association stated. “We would like to send our condolences to the LePore family, and the club’s families and drivers who have been impacted. We will come together as racing families always do and support those who need it the most. We will continue to honor Jennifer, Sean, and Jesse as we race with them in our hearts.”

Edger said Sean drove a Bandolero – a racer designed for drivers as young as eight that acts a bridge between the go kart and a race car. Sean, he said, had been racing for two years in the eight-to-12 year competition.

“He was really, really good,” he said. “He had a good team behind him. Sometimes he had some bad luck on the race track, but he did exceptional.”

Sean won a 2022 state championship driving his Bandolero car, according to a social media post from Huntsville Speedway Alabama.

Edger said he had interactions with Sean and his father Jamie several times. There was no indication of what apparently happened Thursday between them, he said.

“I would never have guessed it,” he said.

Edger said there was one occasion in particular where Jamie was “stern,” telling Sean how he might have gained position in a race. While it wasn’t abusive, he said, in any child, it “might have killed his self-esteem.”

“He was a stand-up kid though,” he said. “A child at that age still needs to be a kid.”

As for other racing families, the news of the LePores has been devastating.

“It’s crazy,” he said. “It doesn’t make any sense. In the racing world, when we come together, it’s family.”