PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM WIN STREAK ENDS AT 9 ROUNDS IN CHICAGO SEMI’S

Marstons Mills, MA-July 16, 2015-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team reached the semifinals of the Route 66 Nationals, qualifying in the fast half of the field for the eighth time in eight starts this year and establishing top speed of the opening qualifying session. Driver Todd Veney defeated East Region rival Dan Pomponio in the first round and former Central Division champ Kirk Williams in the quarterfinals before falling to Wyoming’s Kris Hool in the semi’s.

“Getting to the semi’s – especially at a national event – usually means you’ve had a great weekend, but after the way we’ve been doing, it was almost a letdown,” said Veney, who was coming off back-to-back victories, including his first in national event competition. “It’s not a bad problem to have. The car ran great all weekend, and we had low e.t. of the second round, but for some reason it shook the tires in the semifinals the way everybody else had been the round before.”

With the semifinal showing, the team stands second in the national standings, just 10 points out of first. “That was another solid outing, another really good weekend,” Blake said. “The whole crew was under a lot of pressure in eliminations and really came through. Because of the live TV schedule for the pros, we had to wait six hours between the first round and the second round, and then had just 40 minutes between that round and the semi’s, but the guys got it done.”

The Permatex/Follow A Dream team’s next race is at the team’s home track, New England Dragway in Epping, N.H., but there’s no time to head home. The team will go straight from Route 66 Raceway outside Chicago to southern New Hampshire, where they’ll test on Thursday, qualify on Friday, and race under the lights Saturday night. Eliminations are set for 5:00; 7:00, and 9:00 p.m.