PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM REACHES THE SEMI’S AT NEW ENGLAND DRAGWAY

Marstons Mills, MA -July 23, 2014-With a semifinal appearance at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at the team’s home track, New England Dragway, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team moved into a tie for second place in the East Region Top Alcohol Funny Car standings. Driver Todd Veney got around No. 1 qualifier Fred Tigges in the first round before falling to eventual runner-up Matt Gill in the semifinals in another matchup of Massachusetts-based teams.
Veney qualified 8th in the field with a backpedaling 6.02 at 250 mph and won the first round when Tigges invalidated a track-record 5.55 with a red-light start. In the semi’s, he backpedaled when the car headed toward the wall and eventually shut off to a 7.30.
“There’s not much you can do when the front end’s in the air like that,” Veney said. “We probably would have won if the car was going straight because it left hard with the wheels up, but it’s a pretty helpless feeling when you can’t steer.”
“The car ran great in testing, but it was a different track when qualifying began,” said Blake. Veney coasted to a 5.94 at 173 mph on the first test run, a planned half-track shutoff that would have been a 5.62 or 5.63. The second run was a 5.60-flat at more than 258 mph, close to both ends of the New England Dragway track record.
The Follow A Dream team’s next race is the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series East Regional Aug. 1-2 at Atco Dragway, where the team won in 2007 and 2010.