PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM HOLDS ON TO 4TH IN NATIONAL STANDINGS

Marstons Mills, MA-October 7, 2015-With one good run after another, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team reached the quarterfinals at the rain-plagued NHRA Keystone Nationals, Blake’s favorite race on the tour and the one where, in 1998, he made the life-changing decision to form his own race team.

Facing the worst conditions racers have encountered in years, Blake had the most consistent Top Alcohol Funny Car on the grounds, running better on the team’s slowest run than almost every other team did on its best. Inclement weather completely washed out Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and for the first time in memory, an entire NHRA national event was conducted in a single day as qualifying was reduced to a pressure-packed one-session format.

Driver Todd Veney ran a 5.58 for the No. 2 spot, tying the team’s highest qualifying position ever in national event competition and setting up a first-round match with Doug Gordon that had major points implications. Veney, the fourth-ranked driver in the national standings, defeated Gordon, of Paso Robles, Calif., who entered the event fifth in the standings with a 5.56, the best run of the round.

In the quarterfinals, eventual event champ of John Lombardo of Brea, Calif., who hadn’t run better than a 6.47 all weekend, unloaded a 5.49, low e.t. of the meet to that point, to put away Veney’s best run all weekend, a 5.55 that would have covered any other driver that round except Lombardo. “We were in the wrong place at the wrong time, just like at Indy,” Veney said. “These things usually even out over time, and that was just a bad draw.”

“All you can do is worry about the things you can control,” said Blake. “The car was flawless all weekend. [Tuner] Tommy [Howell] said we probably could have run better that time, but the harder you run the car the closer you get to shaking or smoking the tires, and Lombardo hadn’t made a full run all day, so it’s a tough call.”

With the quarterfinal finish, the Permatex/Follow A Dream team held on to fourth place in the national standings heading into Dallas, where the team will compete for the first time.