PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM WINS RICHMOND

Marstons Mills, MA-May 14, 2015-At the rescheduled East Regional at Virginia Motorsports Park in Richmond, Va., Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team emerged victorious with its best performance in years. Driver Todd Veney set low e.t. and top speed of all three rounds of Top Alcohol Funny Car eliminations and now is tied with Mickey Ferro for first place in the East Region standings.

“The car was absolutely flawless all weekend,” said Blake, whose team also won Richmond in 2012. “Every guy on the crew devotes so much time to working on the car, and whenever you have to go back for a rainout, it takes an even bigger sacrifice, but it all paid off.”

“This weekend ranks right up there with Lebanon Valley a couple years ago and the last time we won at Richmond,” Veney said. “[Tuner] Tommy Howell had the car on rails all weekend. To run 5.50s at over 263 mph three rounds in a row on a regional-event track is unbelievable.”

With a 5.62 at 260.97 mph two weeks ago on the originally scheduled date, the Follow A Dream team qualified No. 3 in an unusually tight field, which featured a spread of just six-hundredths of a second from No. 2 (5.60) to No. 7 (5.66). Veney ran a 5.56/264.02 (top speed of the meet) in the first round of eliminations to take out Melinda Green-King, who lost with a 5.76/245. A 5.59/263 in the semifinals eliminated Matt Gill, who just missed winning the regional championship last year, and a 5.58/263 in the final round erased the 5.71/253 of Marie Ferriolo, who was appearing in the first final of her career.

The Permatex/Follow A Dream team’s next race is the East Regional at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., on Memorial Day weekend.