This weekend at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Eastern Regional at Maple Grove Raceway, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny Car team will unveil the first ’14 Camaro Funny Car body in drag racing.
            “It’s exciting to be working with Chevrolet,” Blake said. “I’ve been a Chevy guy from Day 1, and Maple Grove has always been my favorite track. It’s where I was when I made the decision to follow my dream and start this organization, and this weekend marks exactly 17 years since I had the accident that cost me my sight, so it all ties in together.”
Qualifying is on Friday, with one shot at 1:00, and a last-ditch session at 6:00. Eliminations are set to go off at 5:00, 7:00, and 9:00 Saturday evening. The team has reached the final round at this race in two of the past three years.
“It’s an honor just to be a part of this program with Chevrolet,” said driver Todd Veney. “I had one of the old Camaros a long time ago, but this is a whole new deal. It’s the lightest, strongest Alcohol Funny Car body ever made, and the best-looking thing I’ve ever seen. I think a lot of teams are going to be running these Chevy Camaros really soon.”

Fresh off a semifinal appearance at the 4-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team reached the quarterfinals at the Spring Nationals at Royal Purple Raceway in Houston. Driver Todd Veney knocked off defending champ Jay Payne in the first round of eliminations and fouled against No. 1 qualifier and eventual runner-up Annie Whiteley in the quarterfinals.
“It really would have been nice to upset the No. 1 qualifier two times in a row,” said Veney, who knocked off Steve Harker in the first round in Charlotte. “She had low e.t. of every round and would have been hard to beat no matter what, but you never want to hand it over like that.”
The Follow A Dream team qualified No. 8 with a 5.650 at 253 mph and drew Payne, who qualified No. 7 with an almost identical 5.649, coincidentally on the same qualifying run that Veney ran the 5.649. Payne smoked the tires right off the line in the first round, and Veney advanced with a run almost identical to his best qualifying time, 5.657, also at 253 mph.
From Houston, Blake and teammate Ed Parker are headed to the Lafayette, Ind., shop of chassis builder Murf McKinney to pick up a brand-new body, the first Camaro Funny Car in drag racing. “We’re really excited about the Camaro,” Blake said. “We’re going straight from Indiana to North Carolina to put the car in the wind tunnel, then to New Jersey to have it painted in Permatex colors.”
The next race is an East Regional May 23-24 at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., where last year the team reached the final against eventual world champ Frank Manzo.

Marstons Mills, MA -April 17, 2014-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team turned its season around at state-of-the-art zMax Dragway in Charlotte, reaching the semifinals at the Four-Wide Nationals. Driver Todd Veney qualified just 16th in the Top Alcohol Funny Car field but took down No. 1 qualifier Steve Harker in the first round of eliminations and ran low e.t. of the quarterfinals, 5.59, bef
ore going up in smoke in the semi’s against eventual winner Dan Pomponio.
            “It was a great comeback, and it just goes to show that no matter where you qualify, you can win,” Blake said. “I don’t know how long it’s been since a No. 16 beat a No. 1 anywhere – years, probably. The whole team worked together to have the car ready for the first round, and it really responded.”
            Two connecting rods broke in the first qualifying session on a run that wasn’t just good; it was low e.t. by a mile to the quarter-track mark. “The car left hard and everything was business as usual until the engine blew up out of nowhere,” Veney said. “[Tuner] Tom [Howell] looked at the progressive-timing numbers, and that run was going to be a 5.56 or a .57. Harker ended up with low e.t. at 5.58, so who knows – that could have been low e.t. of the meet.”
            After missing the second qualifying session while changing engines, the Permatex/Follow A Dream team made it into the program with an on-and-off-the-throttle 6.15 in the pressure-packed last-ditch session and picked up dramatically to a 5.62 in the opening round of eliminations to upset Harker. An even better 5.59 in the quarterfinals covered Tony Bogolo, but Veney again went up in smoke in the semifinals and fell to Pomponio.

Marstons Mills, MA -April 9, 2014-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream got right back into the 5.50s at the Eastern Regional opener at Virginia Motorsports Park in Richmond, Va., but again went out early. Driver Todd Veney ran a 5.56, better than the team ran two years ago to win the race and just five-hundredths of a second off the track record, but surprisingly it qualified him just fifth in the program.
First-round opponent Dan Pomponio, who qualified fourth with an identical 5.56, shook the tires and backpedaled to just a 6.18, well off the pace both drivers set in qualifying, but Veney went up in smoke right off the line and lost with a shutoff 7.37. “That’s the first time we’ve ever made a bad run with this new car,” he said. “We barely hopped it up at all after qualifying, where the car ran fine in both sessions – 5.62 and 5.56 – but I guess it was a little too much.”
Up next is the 4-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway in Charlotte, where two years ago the team made its two quickest runs ever, 5.52 and 5.53. “It’s still a new car, and we’re learning something every time it goes down the track,” Blake said. “A couple early losses don’t change anything. The car is running great, and we’re all excited about a great year.”

Marstons Mills, MA -April 3, 2014-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny Car team begins its 2014 regional schedule this weekend at Virginia Motorsports Park in Richmond, Va., where two years ago driver Todd Veney qualified No. 1, set low e.t. and top speed, and won the race.
At the first race of the season, three weeks ago in the debut of an all-new Murf McKinney-built Chevy Monte Carlo at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., the team ran nothing but 5.50s. All four runs were better than any run Veney made all last year, when the team finished ninth in the national standings.
“I think we have a hot rod that can win some races,” Blake said. “The car showed promise in testing, and it really performed down in Florida. We have a good track record in Virginia, everybody on the team is ready to go, and we’re looking forward to a great race this weekend.”
Two qualifying sessions are set for Friday, at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Eliminations kick off at 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon and wrap up with an under-the-lights final at 7 p.m.

Marstons Mills, MA -March 19, 2014-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team debuted its new Monte Carlo Top Alcohol Funny Car with one great run after another at the Amalie Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla. Driver Todd Veney ran better on all four runs at Gainesville than any run he made all last year – 5.57, 5.57, 5.55, and 5.54.
After shaking down the car with a couple of abbreviated blasts in a test session at South Georgia Motorsports Park in Valdosta, Ga., earlier in the week, Veney ran a 5.573 on the car’s first full run ever, followed by an identical 5.573 later that afternoon. A 5.55 in last-shot qualifying positioned the team No. 6 of 19 cars in attendance and set up a first-round match with Stockholm, Sweden’s Jonnie Lindberg, who had a better reaction time and won with a slower time, 5.60 to 5.54.
“That’s probably the worst way there is to lose,” Veney said. “We had the better car and lost, but the most important thing is how the car ran. If we keep running like that all year, we can really win some races.”
“There isn’t anybody who hasn’t lost on a holeshot, and that time it happened to us,” Blake said. “It’s tough, but the way the car ran all weekend was absolutely unbelievable. It’s a testament to all the hard work everyone on the team put in all winter and to tuner Tommy Howell, who made all the right calls and had the car running great right out of the box.”
The team’s next race is the Eastern Regional Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event April 4-5 in Richmond, Va., where two years ago Veney picked up the first of three wins on the way to the East Region championship.
 
 

Marstons Mills, MA -October 3, 2013-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team heads to Maple Grove Raceway in eastern Pennsylvania this weekend for the final event of the 2013 season, the Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals. “It’s my favorite race every year because it’s where, 15 years ago, I made the decision to start my own team,” Blake said. “Maple Grove is always sentimental for me but especially this year because this is the last time we’ll run this car before we bring out a brand-new one in 2014.”
Maple Grove also is the track where the Permatex/Follow A Dream team made its quickest and fastest run of the season – 5.56 at 259 mph at the Lucas Oil Series event in May – and where driver Todd Veney twice established career bests, at this event in 2010 (5.549) and 2011 (5.548).
“Maple Grove can be really fast, and with one more good outing we can lock down another top 10 finish,” he said. The team currently is ranked eighth in the national standings, with one victory, three final-round appearances, and 464 points – the exact same total it finished with last year.

Marstons Mills, MA -September 23, 2013-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team climbed to eighth place in the Top Alcohol Funny Car national standings with a quarterfinal finish at the second-to-last race of the season, the Carolina Nationals at zMax Dragway in Charlotte, N.C.

Driver Todd Veney qualified fifth in the field with a 5.66 and ran a 5.59 – the team’s best performance since May – in a first-round win over Fred Tigges. The car was on an even better run against eventual runner-up Mickey Ferro in the quarterfinals, a 5.57 or 5.58, when the blower belt snapped just past half-track, silencing the engine and bringing the weekend to a halt.

“It happened right as I was going into high gear,” Veney said. “It was on its way to the best run we’ve made in a while – over 206 mph at half-track – when it happened. I’m not sure we would have won, but I must have been right beside him because I never saw him until it quit.”

Over the weekend, the team played host to a large group of foster kids, who got a tour of the car, the rig, and the entire pit and spent time with Blake, who delivered an emotional inspirational speech in the team hospitality area. “Being with kids like that, and with the veterans and their families who also joined us in Charlotte this weekend, is what Follow A Dream is all about,” Blake said.

The team’s next event, the Auto Plus Nationals, is the final race of the season, two weeks from now at historic Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa.

Marstons Mills, MA -August 23, 2013-At the final Eastern Regional of the season, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team reached the semifinals at Cecil County Dragway to move from fourth place to second in the final Top Alcohol Funny Car standings. After dominating qualifying with low e.t. of both sessions, the team fought for traction in eliminations and lost to eventual winner John Anderika in the semifinals.
Driver Todd Veney was number 1 after the first session with a 5.66 and established overall low e.t. and top speed of the meet in the final session with a 5.62 at 256.41 mph. After smoking the tires on a first-round bye earned by qualifying on top in a field with an odd number of cars, Veney lost traction again in a winner-take-all semifinal match with Anderika.
“That was a tough because D.J. Cox couldn’t return so we would have had a bye in the final,” said Veney, who won this race last year to clinch the team’s first regional championship. “It would have been nice to come from way behind two years in a row, but we couldn’t make it down that right lane. Nobody could.”
“John’s team earned it all year and we take our hats off to them,” Blake said. “It looked like things were going our way after qualifying, but it wasn’t our year. Now, there’s nothing but national events for the rest of the season, so that’s three more chances to win a big one.”

Marstons Mills, MA,August 15, 2013 Jay Blake’s Permatex/ Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny Car team winds up its Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series season this weekend at Cecil County Dragway, where last year the team picked up the first of back-to-back victories clinching the East Region championship.
“It’s great to be in a position to win another championship,” Blake said. “We’re in fourth place, but we’re only 20 points out of the lead – a lot closer than we were last year, when we won the championship.”
Driver Todd Veney is seventh in the national standings as the team heads back to Cecil County. “Last year at this track we got the biggest win I’ve ever had,” he said. “It’s always a tough track, but sometimes we do our best at places like that.”
Qualifying sessions are slated for 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Friday, and eliminations are set to go off at 3:00, 5:00, and 7:00 Saturday. Following the Cecil County race, the team will run nothing but national events for the rest of the year – the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, the NHRA Nationals in Charlotte, and the Auto Plus Nationals in Reading, Pa

Marstons Mills, MA -July 24, 2013-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team reached the semifinals at the East Regional at the team’s home track, New England Dragway in Epping, N.H. The final-four finish keeps driver Todd Veney in contention for another regional championship and bolstered the team’s lead in the East Region Allstar standings.
Veney ran back-to-back 5.73s Friday in near hundred-degree heat to qualify in the fast half of the field and another 5.73 in the first round of eliminations Saturday night to take out veteran John Headley. In the semifinals against reigning world champ Frank Manzo, who was undefeated at this track, the car smoked the tires off the line for a 5.91 that fell short of Manzo’s 5.62, which was low e.t. to that point.
“Not a bad weekend,” Veney said. “We’re there to win, but any time you make it to the semifinals, you’re doing pretty well. We ran three 5.73s in a row in some pretty tough conditions. It just wasn’t enough to get around Manzo.”
“It was great to have top students and faculty from Porter and Chester Institute at the track with us – people like them are a perfect fit for our program,” Blake said. “We also had the honor of having Chris Vangelder and his family as our guests for the weekend. Chris was blinded in a motorcycle accident a year ago, and it was extra special to be able to show him and his family what’s possible for people who don’t have their sight.”
Next up for the Follow A Dream team is an East Regional next month at Cecil County Dragway in the Baltimore area, where last year the team won to take over first place in the region.

Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team moved up to fourth in the national standings despite an early exit at the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio. Driver Todd Veney qualified 13th with a 5.71 and lost in the first round when the engine went silent behind the line following the burnout.

“The team put in a brand-new engine for this race, and we finally got the new supercharger that Jay had on order a long time ago,” Veney said. “We qualified only 13th but we were just a few hundredths of a second from being in the top four, so we were really looking for big things in eliminations. But then we got back to the pits and our whole weekend turned around.”

Touring pros Khalid alBalooshi, Phil Shuler, and Stevie Jackson showed up in the Follow A Dream pit with nine-year-old Jacob Delling, who lost both of his eyes to retinal cancer and really wanted to meet Blake. “Spending time with Jacob was the highlight of the event for us,” said Blake, who gave Jacob an extended tour of the trailer and the car, highlighted by seat time in the car, where Jacob familiarized himself with the controls and fell in love with the air-shift buttons.

“There will be other races,” Blake said. “We’ve won before and we’ll win again, but getting to spend time with someone like Jacob is what this team and Follow A Dream is all about. It was also great to see some folks from Permatex and TA/Petro this weekend. It’s always nice to have guests of our sponsors enjoy a day at the track.”

Marstons Mills, MA -July 3, 2013-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team reached the final at the prestigious Jegs Allstars race for the second time in three years, this time coming within 12-thousandths of a second of the win. Driver Todd Veney fell to Dale Brand in the final round, 5.59 to 5.62, as both cars made their best runs of the event.
“Just being in the Jegs Allstars race is an honor,” Blake said. “To be in the final again was unbelievable. Every member of the team did his job perfectly, and we just missed winning.”
“I never saw him and was thinking we were going to win as we came up on the finish line,” Veney said. “It was a disappointment, but with the caliber of cars there, you had to be pretty happy just to be in the final round of a race like that.”
After running back-to-back 5.66s to qualify No. 7, Veney ran another 5.66 in the first round to beat Chris Foster and a 5.64 in the semifinals to take out Steve Gasparrelli.
At the Route 66 Nationals, which was run the following day, the Permatex/Follow A Dream faced Foster in the first round again and came out on top again in an even closer race, 5.640 to 5.644. In the quarterfinals, the car kicked a rod for the first time in several years, handing the win to Fred Hagen Jr., who would have been hard to get around regardless with low e.t. of the entire event (5.52).

Following its most dominant win in years last week at the Lebanon Valley Regional, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team heads to Chicago for two races on the same weekend – the prestigious Jegs Allstars race and the Route 66 Nationals.  
“We almost won it two years ago,” said Blake, whose team will be on the road for the next two weeks. “Making the Allstars race is the result of a lot of hard work over an entire year by every guy on this team.” From Chicago, the team heads straight to the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, where in 2011 it reached the final round.
“It’s the second time we’ve made the Allstars race, and it’s an honor to represent the Eastern Region,” said driver Todd Veney. “We’ll be up against the best cars from around the country, and it could be wide-open because nobody in this year’s field has ever won it before.” The Follow A Dream team, which reached the final in its only previous appearance, in 2011, is the only team in this year’s field that’s ever been to an Allstars final.

Marstons Mills, MA -June 18, 2013-At the Lucas Oil Series race at Lebanon Valley Dragway, Jay Blake’s Permatex/ Follow A Dream team turned in its most dominant performance in seven years, running the table by qualifying No. 1, setting low e.t. and top speed of every round of eliminations, and winning the race. Driver Todd Veney paced the field in qualifying with a 5.63 at 254 mph and ran 5.63, 5.65, and 5.63 – all at 253 mph – for the team’s first victory since one in Bowling Green, Ky., last August locked up the 2012 East Region championship.

“Every win is a team win, but the crew won this one for us,” Veney said. “The car was meticulously prepared when it got to the track, every guy on the team did a perfect job between rounds, and tuner Tom Howell had it running on rails all weekend.”

“This one is for my dad,” said Howell, whose father, Thomas Howell, passed away on July 6, 2012 at the age of 83.

“It was a total team effort,” said Blake, whose team scored at the upstate New York facility for the second time in four years. “Low e.t., top speed, win the race – what more could you ask for?”

Veney defeated John Headley in the first round with a 5.638 at 253.89 mph to the Pennsylvania driver’s 6.82 at 118.44. In the semifinals, he got around Eric Louie in a rematch of the 2010 Lebanon Valley final, 5.650, 253.84 to 5.790, 247.72. In the final, a consistent 5.637, overall low e.t. of the event, wiped out John Anderika, who finished second to the Permatex/Follow A Dream team in the East Region standings last year.

After a weekend off, the team returns to the track at Route 66 Raceway in Chicago, where Veney will represent the East Region in the prestigious Jegs Allstars event on Saturday and compete for the Route 66 Nationals title on Sunday.

Marstons Mills, MA -June 13, 2013-Following a final-round appearance at Maple Grove Raceway over Memorial Day weekend, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team heads to Lebanon Valley Dragway in upstate New York, where three years ago driver Todd Veney got his first win with the team.

“I have some great memories from that place,” Veney said. “That’s one weekend I’ll never forget. The car was back in the 5.50s at Maple Grove, and even though you can’t usually run times like that at Lebanon Valley, it’s a great sign. This is the best part of the season, the time of year when we start racing every other weekend – sometimes more.”
 
Including upcoming national events in Chicago (where the team will be part of the prestigious Jegs Allstars race) and Norwalk, Follow A Dream will be on the road for three of the next four weeks.

“Our summer racing schedule is about to really get going,” Blake said. “This is the second-shortest trip of the year – just three hours each way – and then we take off for the Midwest. The car was strong at Maple Grove, and we’re ready to go.”

Marstons Mills, MA -May 30, 2013-At the Lucas Oil Series event at Maple Grove Raceway, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny Car team was back in the finals for the second time this year. Driver Todd Veney made his two best runs of the season, 5.58 and 5.56, before falling to legendary Frank Manzo in a rematch of the 2011 final.

“The car ran great from the second qualifying run all the way through the semi’s, we didn’t hurt a part, and everyone did their jobs perfectly,” Blake said. “It would have been nice to get around Frank, but anytime you can make it to the final round, it’s a good weekend.”
Veney qualified No. 3 with a 5.61, the team’s best run since the Gatornationals in March, and got quicker in eliminations. In the first round, a 5.58 took out rookie Matt Gill, whose father, Paul, was runner-up here last year. In the semifinals, a 5.56, Veney’s quickest run since the 2012 Charlotte event, eliminated John Anderika, whose team finished second to Follow A Dream in the 2012 Eastern Region standings.

In the final, Veney smoked the tires off the line and had to backpedal, and Manzo was long gone with a 5.50, low e.t. of eliminations. “It was still a good weekend,” Veney said. “Frank is always hard to beat, and I read where he’s won this race 11 of the past 14 years and the Keystone Nationals 12 times in the past 13 years, so you can’t feel too bad. The car is back in the 5.50s, and [tuner] Tom Howell had it running faster every run – 257 mph on the last qualifier, 258 in the first round, and 259 in the semi’s.”

Next up is the Lucas Oil Series event June 14-15 at Lebanon Valley Dragway in upstate New York, where three years ago Veney got his first win with the Follow A Dream team.

Marstons Mills, MA –April 23, 2013-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny Car team went out in the opening round of eliminations for the first time ever at Charlotte, where the team had amassed four semifinal finishes and three quarterfinal finishes in seven previous starts.

“We got stuck in the wrong lane at the wrong time, and it cost us,” said driver Todd Veney, who ran a career-best 5.52 at this event last year. “We just missed having lane choice, and nobody in the entire first round made it down that left lane.”

After qualifying fifth with an off-the-trailer 5.67 and improving to a 5.66 in the second qualifying session, Veney dropped to ninth after the final qualifying session Saturday morning, when the temperature went from the 80s to the 60s overnight and several other cars picked up. The Permatex/Follow A Dream car lost traction 150 feet off the starting line in round one, allowing opponent Paul Noakes to advance with a 5.70.

“That’s not what we wanted to see, but it happens sometimes,” Blake said. “Usually, it doesn’t matter which lane you’re in, but that’s one time that it really did. Fortunately, there’s another race in a couple of days, so we have a chance to get right back on top.”

Marstons Mills, MA –April 11, 2013-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny Car team heads to Virginia Motorsports Park in Richmond, Va., this weekend for the first of back-to-back-to-back races. Driver Todd Veney is the defending champion at Richmond and made his quickest (5.52) and fastest (262.64 mph) runs ever last year at Charlotte. The final stop of the triple header is Houston, where in 2005 Blake’s Follow A Dream team collected its first major victory.

“We’ve got a good history at all three tracks,” said Blake, Follow A Dream’s team owner and crew chief. “Virginia was off the tour for a few years, and it was great to get the win in our first year back. Charlotte has to be the nicest track we’ve ever been to, and Houston has always been a special place for us.”

“Last year at Richmond was the first time I ever had low e.t. and top speed at an NHRA race, and it was a weekend I’ll always remember,” Veney said. “Everybody should be back again this year – plus some guys who weren’t there last time – so it’s not going to be easy.”

Qualifying sessions are slated for 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Friday, and eliminations are set to go off at 1 p.m. Saturday. From Richmond, the team will head straight to zMAX Dragway in Charlotte, N.C., for the 4-WideNationals.

Marstons Mills, MA –March 20, 2013-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team reached the final round of the NHRA Gatornationals thanks to a heroic effort by the crew, which completed a mad thrash with just minutes to spare. Driver Todd Veney defeated Paul Noakes in the Top Alcohol Funny Car semi’s but the engine blew in a flash of fire a few hundred feet before the finish line, slowing the car to a 5.75 at just 212 mph and creating the very real possibility that Dan Pomponio would get a bye run in the final.

With help from mechanics from many other crews, the Follow A Dream team replaced the engine and got everything buttoned up just in time to race through the lanes and straight to the starting line to race Pomponio.  Tuner Tom Howell never had time to develop a tune-up, but the car, equipped with a new ignition, had more power and carried the front end all the way through low gear as it headed toward the centerline.

“I finally had to lift, or I would have gone over the center line,” Veney said. “It’s amazing that we made it up there at all. They strapped me in back in the pits, and I could hear people cheering as we went through the lanes and made it up to the line.”

“It was unbelievable how everybody came together to get the job done,” Blake said. “So many things could have gone wrong, but the engine ran great.”

After the race, Blake and teammate Ed Parker headed from Gainesville to the Florida panhandle, where Blake will speak to airmen at the Eglin Air Force Base near Valparaiso, Fla on Thursday, March 21. “It’s always an honor to be able to speak to our military, and I’m really looking forward to it,” he said.  The event will be live streamed beginning at approximately 3 pm ET and can be viewed by logging onto followadream.org.