At the Cecil County Lucas Oil Series
event, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team endured a second straight
subpar outing. Driver Todd Veney qualified on the bubble and smoked the tires
in the first round against number 1 qualifier Frank Manzo.

“It was one
thing after another this weekend,” Veney said. “The car ran great in
testing, an easy 5.75. But starting in the first qualifying session, nothing
went right.”

A broken blower
belt in the opening session turned what would have been about a 5.74 that would
have qualified the team number 2 into a coasting 6.17 at just 182 mph. In the
only other qualifying session, a broken rocker arm caused the boost in the
other cylinders to skyrocket, setting off a chain reaction of mechanical
mayhem. It torched the block and head on the right rear of the engine and
started a brief flash fire, forcing Veney to set off the fire extinguishers.

The team, led by
Blake and tuner Tom Howell, went into thrash mode, swapped a fresh engine into
the car, and made it to the staging lanes just in time to face Manzo. Veney
smoked the tires off the line, and Manzo advanced with a 5.66.

“Not a good
weekend,” Blake said. “One good thing is that we all came together to
repair the damage and we made it up there in time for first round. A lot of
other teams might not have made it.”

After a two-week
break, the Follow A Dream team heads to the Division 1 Lucas Oil Series event
at Old Bridge
Township Raceway
Park in Englishtown, N.J.,
where last year Veney ran in the 5.50s and reached the final round.