Follow A Dream/Permatex TA/FC team’s East Region Title Hopes Fall Short

MARSTONS Mills, Massachusetts (August 9, 2016) – Jay Blake’s Follow A Dream/Permatex Top Alcohol Funny Car team went to Atco Dragway (Atco, New Jersey) this past weekend with high hopes of winning the 2016 Lucas Oil East Region championship.

Unfortunately, those hopes went up in smoke as the car lost traction during the first round of eliminations. Even though driver Phil Burkart qualified No. 3, he lost to Dan Pomponio, bringing both the day and Burkart’s championship bid to a premature end.

“We have a lot of power in our car and we’re trying to manage it better, but we’ve been struggling with that recently,” team owner Jay Blake said. “We made a clutch change and it’s showing a lot of promise, it’s just taking us some time to figure out what it really wants to be consistent.”

After leading the East Region standings for much of the season, Burkart and the Follow A Dream/Permatex Top Alcohol Funny Car team finished second to D.J. Cox Jr., who went on to win not only the race but also the championship, defeating Burkart by 42 points.

Burkart and Cox were tied for the lead in the standings coming into this past weekend’s race.

With its East Region season now concluded, the Follow A Dream/Permatex team returns to the Lucas Oil Series national circuit with three more events remaining on its 2016 schedule, starting with the legendary U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis on Labor Day weekend; followed by Charlotte, North Carolina; and the team’s season finale at Maple Grove, Pennsylvania.

“We’re going to go to a national event with a national event facility, the Safety Safari, we should have a great racetrack and we’re going to go out and run fast,” Blake said of the U.S. Nationals. “The track conditions at a national event are usually better for high horsepower cars like ours.

“We have three races left. The reality is that we have the team and the car to win the next three. The competition is extremely stout, but we have the support, the team and the car to win.

“From where we started the season at Gainesville, Florida, with a new tuner, a new driver, some new crew guys and some new components, to be in the points chase regionally and be in the top 10 nationally, as a whole, we’ve done very well.

“You always want more, but you can’t lose sight of where you’ve started and where you’ve come. We’ve definitely come a long way this season.”

Burkart is currently ranked 11th in the Lucas Oil Series national standings and hopes to climb back in the top 10 by the end of the season.

“We have three races left that we can win, and that’s what we’re planning on,” Blake said optimistically.